How to Announce a Pregnancy
by quicksilversquared
Summary: Several years after the event of How to Fake a Marriage, Adrien and Marinette are ready to expand their family. When it comes to breaking the news, though... Well, some people are harder to tell than others.
1. Chapter 1

_Surprise lol_

* * *

Just like much of their relationship, Adrien and Marinette's discovery that they were going to have a baby was, well, a bit _unconventional_.

To be fair, there had been a couple months of madness leading up to the discovery, which meant that they were more distracted than they might normally be. Marinette's workplace was trying to get a couple new lines launched in a fairly short time frame, which meant working more overtime than normal. Adrien's lab had made some big discoveries, and he had gotten a promotion. They had repainted several rooms in their apartment, and then their older cat, Masha, had gotten sick and needed several emergency vet visits before she _finally_ started recovering. So Marinette hadn't really thought much of it when she was getting tired more easily than normal, because of _course_ she was tired and in need of a break. The weight gain was so minimal as to hardly be noticed at all, and when she _had_ caught on it had been written off as being from stress eating at work. The slightly sore back- well, she was on her feet a lot at work. It made _sense_.

It wasn't until she had felt ill at the smell of croissants- _croissants!_\- that Marinette started thinking that something might be up. And even after that, it had taken Adrien pointing out that they had gone off birth control several months prior after deciding that they were ready for kids and it was entirely possible that she was pregnant for her to even _think_ of it. A home test ended up positive, and the next week they were headed in to the doctor to confirm it and find out how far along Marinette was.

She had suspected that she was probably two months along, _maybe_ three. It would have been easy enough to miss the signs for a month or two, what with how insane her life had been.

"Actually, it looks like you're a bit over four and a half months along."

Marinette was pretty certain that her jaw had hit the floor. "Four- _four and a half?_"

"How- but wouldn't she be showing?" Adrien asked, looking just as flabbergasted as Marinette felt. "Or- I don't know _that_ much about pregnancy, but…"

Their OBGYN smiled at that. "Many people would be, yes. Marinette appears to have _very_ strong stomach muscles, so those are holding your baby back and keeping it from pushing out as far. You'll likely be pretty small throughout your pregnancy."

Adrien and Marinette exchanged a look as the doctor adjusted the wand over her belly. She mouthed "_Ladybug_" and he nodded in agreement.

They had known that running, swinging, and leaping around the city put them in _fantastic_ shape, and they had made sure that they were going out for at least a _short _run at least three times a week to make their rounds of the city, no matter how busy they got. They _definitely _hadn't suspected that Marinette would have such strong abs that it would hide a pregnancy.

"Your baby isn't in the right position at the moment, so I can't tell if you're going to have a boy or a girl quite yet," the doctor continued. "And we have to cover a whole slew of tests and information yet, so that's just going to have to wait for the next appointment."

"That's fine!" Marinette said quickly, beaming. "Yeah, we probably have several appointments' worth of testing and info to catch up on, don't we?"

The rest of their appointment went by in a rush, and then they were setting up a second appointment and on their way back out the door, a packet of information and a list of books to read tucked under Adrien's arm as they took the bus back to their appointment.

"So the pregnancy is halfway over already," Adrien commented as they flopped down on their couch after getting home from the appointment. He reached out and gave Masha a fond pat as she jumped up next to them. She purred and pushed her head into his hand. "Four and a half months. _Wow_."

"The easy months, yeah." Marinette ran a hand through her hair. "I just- I don't understand how I missed the signs for so _long_. One month? Definitely easy to miss. Two? Fine. But _four?_ Almost five, even?"

Tikki flew down to perch on Marinette's shoulder. "Well, you _were_ busy, Marinette," the kwami reminded her. "And you've been running around as Ladybug again a lot and you're _super_ in shape from that, so it wasn't like you were ever regular. Not noticing that you weren't getting your period isn't _that_ weird if you really think about everything else that's been going on."

Marinette frowned. "Yeah, that's actually something that I've been wondering about. I know that I've been running around as Ladybug, but I haven't been doing it _anywhere_ near as often as I did when we were fighting Hawkmoth and yet somehow I just _snapped_ back into shape, after three years of slacking in London. Not that I'm complaining, of course, but..."

"Yeah! That's a side effect of the Miraculous!" Tikki said cheerfully. "Because in the past, people defeated an evil, had a year or a couple years off, and then something else would pop up! Having the Miraculous accelerate your getting back into fighting shape was a real advantage then. And the healing properties associated with being a user- you're going to recover faster than most people after you give birth."

"So I have my crimefighting abs back without doing the crimefighting work," Marinette mused. "Well, okay, I can't complain about that. And no wonder the baby bump hasn't popped out- that's a _lot_ of muscle to push against." She paused and frowned. "Uh- should I maybe not be going out as Ladybug until I've given birth, then? Is it dangerous?"

"The Miraculous magic will protect your baby, just as it has been!" Tikki assured her. "You can keep exercising, it's not an issue at all! I've had Ladybugs transforming up through their last month with no problem. And it'll keep your tummy muscles working, so you'll stay small!"

"Think about it this way- we can _really_ mess with people again, without even trying at all," Adrien pointed out with a grin. "We tell them you're pregnant, they ask when the baby is due, and you say _oh, four months_."

Marinette laughed at that. "And they'll be expecting six or seven months out at the very least. That _is_ going to be fun_._ My parents are going to be so excited! You _know_ they've been hoping for grandbabies."

"We _gotta_ do the bun in the oven joke," Adrien said suddenly, sitting straight up. "We _gotta_. When we tell your parents, at least. Tom won't ever forgive us if we don't."

"And if they don't catch that, maybe a cake or something?" Marinette offered. She grinned sheepishly. "That may or may not just be an excuse to have cake, honestly."

"Oh, no, the pregnancy cravings are starting already!" Adrien joked, grinning as he pulled Marinette close and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Though I can't say I don't approve. I _love_ your cake."

"Promise me that when I _actually_ start getting proper cravings, you'll keep me from eating anything _too_ gross," Marinette told Adrien, voice suddenly deadly serious. "_Promise_ me."

Adrien just grinned. He had heard about pregnancy cravings, and, well… "Can I just say yes now and then not enforce that at all? Like, whatever Pregnant Mari wants, Pregnant Mari will get. You're too terrifying for me to deny you anything."

"Promise me!" Marinette insisted. "I'm not saying deny me things like that amazing white chocolate pretzel frozen yogurt if I want it, but if I'm craving, like, Marmite and sardines on toast, tell me no."

Adrien paused mid-mental note to stock up on Marinette's favorite frozen yogurt to make a face at the idea of Marmite and sardines on toast. It sounded _gross_, and if the thought of _eating_ something like that made his soul want to flee his body and his tongue stage a revolt.

"That's what I mean when I say nothing too gross," Marinette told him. "Seriously. Direct me to something else. If I want something salty, _chips_ will be plenty. Or- ooh! Know what sounds good? Hash browns."

Adrien hastily made another mental note to ask Alya's mom how to make her famous hash browns. Maybe there were some steps that could be done in advance so if Marinette _did_ have hash brown cravings, he could get them ready quickly.

"I can do that much," Adrien assured her. Then he paused. "Uh, I've heard things about pickles and ice cream? Is that…?"

"_Gross_."

"That would be salty and sweet," Tikki pointed out. "So maybe find something else like that! Pretzels and ice cream, maybe, or chips and chocolate."

"Oh, _that_ sounds good."

…..Adrien was starting to think that maybe he should start writing all this down.

* * *

As the grandparents-to-be who would _definitely _be the most fun to tell, Tom and Sabine were the first on Adrien and Marinette's list of people to share the news with. It wasn't long before an opportunity to share the news presented itself in the form of their weekly Saturday night dinner with the elder Dupain-Chengs. It was Adrien and Marinette's turn to host, too, which was _perfect_.

The cake was made the night before, baked and then assembled, with the center carved out and filled with a little surprise that would spill out as soon as the first slice was removed, and the grandparents-to-be would surely notice. If they started suspected something after Adrien's bun in the oven joke, the cake would confirm it.

"Hello, you two," Tom said cheerfully as Adrien ushered his mother- and father-in-law into the apartment. "Have you had a good week?"

"It was- well, busy," Marinette admitted with a bit of a laugh. "More stuff happening than we expected, but it was good. And yours?"

As Tom started to tell his daughter about a particularly insane order that he and Sabine had had to deal with, Adrien headed back into the kitchen to get dinner finished up. He loved these weekend dinners, and it was great that they were able to do them so _often_, considering that Marinette's parents generally ate early thanks to their baker's hours and he and Marinette usually had dinner later on, after they got home from their respective jobs. But on Saturdays Adrien and Marinette didn't have work, and Tom and Sabine didn't need to be up early the next morning as the bakery was closed on Sundays. They didn't need to rush through their time together, which was _lovely_.

On the (fairly rare) occasion when they actually managed to have dinner with his father- they tried for once a month, normally, and about half the time the dinners didn't actually end up _happening_\- his father was always distracted, clearly trying to get through the dinner so he could go back to whatever it was that he had been doing. There was a perfunctory exchange of questions about what the other party had been up to, and then awkward silence as they ate. It was the _complete _opposite of the Dupain-Cheng dinners, where they happily chatted about anything and everything until they had to leave.

In the kitchen, the soup was bubbling away on the stove merrily and it smelled _fantastic_. Adrien gave it one good stir, then caught the timer for the oven right before it was about to go off. Once glance in the oven told him that the buns were probably done, so he carefully pulled the tray out, very deliberately pulling one of the buns off and tossing it back in the oven before making the sheet clatter enough to make it sound like he had bumped the tray on the way out.

After all, they couldn't make things _too_ easy for Mr. Dupain and Mrs. Cheng to figure out. They just wanted to get Marinette's parents wondering for the time being.

"Everything all right?" Sabine called.

"Yeah, just bumped the bun tray as I was taking it out of the oven," Adrien called back, settling the tray down on the counter. He winked at Marinette as she came into the kitchen. "No big problem."

Marinette bent down and re-opened the oven, grabbing an oven mitt as she did. "Adrien, there's a bun in the oven still."

"A bun in the oven? Whoops!" Adrien exclaimed, holding the tray out for Marinette to put the (poor, abused, but _very_ useful) bun on. "Sorry, I must have knocked it off accidentally."

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Sabine and Tom exchanging a look. Tom mouthed "_A bun in the oven?_" and Sabine shrugged, glancing towards Marinette.

Marinette, who really didn't look pregnant at all, who the doctor had said was so in shape and had such strong stomach muscles that the bump was a _lot_ smaller than usual (aka _nonexistent_) and would probably stay small for a while yet. Tikki had said the same thing- that a lot of her Ladybugs didn't really start showing until their third trimester if at all, since they had _insanely_ strong core muscles from swinging around all the time.

The grandparents-to-be exchanged a puzzled look and a shrug, though Adrien couldn't help but notice that they were paying a _lot_ closer attention to Marinette than before.

It didn't take long for dinner to come together, and then Marinette started dishing up the soup. Adrien stepped around her to grab the cat food out of the cupboard and started refilling Masha and Sasha's dishes. Masha came over at once, hopping down from the large cat tree that Adrien and Marinette had made and making a beeline for her dish. Adrien shook the container of dry cat food loudly, and seconds later Sasha's mews came around the corner. The little black-and-white kitten wound in and out of Adrien's ankles once, then pounced on her food eagerly, chomping loudly as she devoured her meal.

"Sasha is growing so quickly!" Sabine exclaimed, peering around the corner to watch the cats eat. "I remember when you brought her home. She was just a little fuzzball. And now she's practically full-grown."

"She has so much energy," Adrien said with a laugh, crouching down to give Sasha a fond scratch behind the ears. She arched into the touch, purring loudly. "But at least Masha calms her down. And having Sasha around gives Masha more energy, it seems."

"Masha seems to be recovering," Tom said as he accepted bowl of soup from Marinette. "For a while there, I was worried that you were going to lose her already."

Adrien nodded, glancing down at Masha. There had been several weeks where he and Marinette had been worried that their older cat would die on them, after only having had her for a couple years. The vet had managed to figure out what the problem was, though, and now Masha was a happy, healthy cat once again.

...well, at least they had gotten _that_ resolved before they discovered Marinette's pregnancy. If they hadn't, that would have been even more unnecessary stress.

"Are you two going to up and adopt another cat on us?" Tom asked jokingly as they headed to the table. "See if you can do three at once?" He grinned. "Maybe you can _just happen_ to find another cat whose name rhymes with Masha and Sasha. Natasha, maybe?"

Adrien thought about what it would be like to have _three_ cats running around the apartment with a new baby in the picture and shuddered. "Maybe in the future. Not now." He laughed. "And we didn't name them. Those were just the names they came with from the shelter and we decided not to change them because they were cute."

"Right, and Sasha's name didn't play into your decision to pick her, not at _all_."

Adrien laughed. "Actually, it had more to do with the fact that Sasha climbed right into my lap when we were looking for a young cat at the shelter. She claimed me and refused to leave.

Then she climbed up on my shoulder and tried making a nest in my hair, and we knew we had to take her."

"And it was then that they finally told us her name," Marinette chimed in. "And I don't think we would consider trying to find a Natasha, at least not until we get a bigger place." She grinned, placing her bowl down on the table and heading back to the kitchen for the basket of buns. "_And_ once we get the cats to stop sleeping on our bed. They take up half of it, I swear. Ready to eat?"

"Definitely!"

They all dug in. Adrien tore into a bun, dipping it into his soup before enjoying a big bite of it. Their conversation bounced from topic to topic, from Adrien's job to Marinette's and then to how the bakery was doing. Marinette's Nonna Gina was going to be dropping by Paris again, and her great-uncle from China was going to visit in two months. There was a huge order for a wedding coming up in the next week, and all of Tom and Sabine's workers were going to be on hand to make sure it got done. Partway through the meal, Sasha hopped up onto Tom's lap and started begging for food.

"Ignore her," Marinette said with a laugh. "She's fed plenty."

"But she's so cute!" Tom beamed down at the kitten, giving her a little pat. "Aren't you, you little thief?"

"Please don't encourage her, papa."

"And yet I don't see you shooing Masha off of your lap, Marinette." Sabine nodded towards the older cat, who had curled up on Marinette's lap, pressed up against her stomach. "Though I suppose she isn't trying to beg."

Marinette giggled as she gave Masha a fond pat. "Masha is a little angel. She just likes being around us."

Adrien nodded in agreement. Masha had gotten really, really cozy with them following her illness, favoring Marinette more than Adrien but always wanting to be near them. Several times, they had woken up to find Masha curled up next to Marinette's side instead of just on the foot of the bed. One she had crawled between Adrien and Marinette to curl up next to Marinette's stomach.

Suddenly, a light went on in Adrien's head. Masha had started acting like that after she was sick, sure, but that would have been maybe a month after Marinette got pregnant. And she was favoring Marinette _far_ more than Adrien. Like, _way_ more.

Could cats sense pregnancy? Had Masha known about Marinette's pregnancy before they suspected anything?

If so, that was _cool_. Cool, and very, _very_ sweet. Masha was probably looking after Marinette in her own way, keeping her stomach warm and protecting her.

"So _are _you guys thinking of moving?" Tom asked as they finished up dinner. "I know you said something about not thinking about getting another cat until you get a bigger place earlier- is that something you're actually considering, then?"

Adrien and Marinette exchanged a look. They hadn't had a chance to discuss that, actually. They had previously said that they would want to get a bigger place before having kids, but that probably wasn't going to happen, considering that their lease ran until only a month before Marinette was due and they _really_ wouldn't want to move then.

That was probably something they should have decided _before_ getting pregnant, but oh well.

"Maybe?" Marinette said, sounding a little uncertain. "Possibly within the next year or two."

Adrien nodded. They would probably talk about it after Tom and Sabine left, figuring out where their Emma or Hugo would be, considering that their second bedroom was currently Marinette's sewing room. She wasn't using it _quite_ as much as when they first got back to Paris since she had a job in a design house now, but Marinette still liked sewing some of her own designs for herself and Adrien to wear. Ideally they would have a separate room for sewing and for the baby, but they might have to have a dual-use room for a little bit.

"For a place with more rooms?" Sabine asked, looking interested. Adrien didn't miss her second glance down at Marinette's stomach. Oh, she was _on_ to them. "Might there be some with three bedrooms in this building? It's such a nice place."

Marinette perked up. "Oh, we should ask! That would be nice to just be able to move within the same building. Or if the landlady has another building nearby, even. I've really liked the terms of our lease, and she's so easy to deal with if we have any problems."

"It would be _really_ nice if we didn't have to go out looking again," Adrien agreed. He glanced towards the kitchen, then back at Marinette. "Should I get the dessert?"

"Could you? I've been trapped, I think." Marinette gave Masha a fond pat and then passed her plate to Adrien to bring out. "Dessert plates and forks, and then the cake cutter."

Adrien nodded, hopping up and clearing the table as quickly as possible. He could tell that Marinette was excited to share their news, so he didn't want to make her wait. The dishes got rinsed and loaded into the dishwasher, and then Adrien hurried to get clean dessert plates and forks out and on the table. The lovely pastel purple cake came out next, and Adrien set it down in front of Sabine to cut.

"Tom, put the cat down," Sabine said as she accepted the cake cutter from Adrien and started slicing into the cake. "Sasha won't want any of this anyway, and you don't want cat hair in your food."

"You want me to put my lovely grand-kitten on the floor?" Tom nuzzled Sasha one more time, then bent over to set her down. She scampered off to the cat tree, clambering into one of the cat hammocks that was suspended among the platforms. "All right, all right, I'm ready for cake. This looks _delicious_."

"Marinette was responsible for all of the decorations, as usual," Adrien said with a grin, sitting back down next to his wife. "I was the quality control."

"You're getting better," Marinette assured him, gently tipping Masha off of her lap and sending her after Sasha. "You just have a, uh, different style."

Adrien's grin grew wider. "She means that it looks like something a ten-year-old might do."

Sabine laughed as she made the second cut and turned the cake cutter to pull the piece out. "You'll get there." She pulled the piece out, setting it down on a plate. Several candies detached from the frosting and clattered onto the plate. "It takes time, and- _oh!_"

"Is that a _rattle?_" Tom asked eagerly, sitting up and leaning forward to see the candies that were sticking to the slice of cake that Sabine had pulled out. He reached out and pulled one off, inspecting it with delight. "It _is!_"

"Rattles and little chocolate baby onesies!" Sabine exclaimed, delighted. Excitement was written all over her face. She looked up at Adrien and Marinette. "Are you…?"

"I'm pregnant," Marinette confirmed, beaming. "You're going to be grandparents!"

"Grandparents!" Tom exclaimed, beaming. "I'm going to be a _grandpa!_ Oh, I can't wait!"

"Oh, that's so exciting!" Sabine had abandoned the cake cutter to pull Marinette up into a hug. She pulled Adrien in a second later. "I _hoped_ that you were hinting at that with the bun in the oven jokes, but I didn't want to get my hopes up too early. But a baby! Our first grandchild! Not that we don't adore the kitties, of course," she added with a laugh. "But oh, they're going to be _so_ cute. I can't wait!"

Adrien and Marinette grinned at each other as Marinette's parents continued exclaiming over the news. As expected, they were absolutely over the moon. Tom was already moaning about how he couldn't wait seven or eight months to meet his first grandchild, and Sabine seemed to already be designing the baby arrival cake in her head.

"I need to know where you got those sprinkles," she told Marinette. "They're so cute!"

Marinette laughed at that. "I made them, actually," she admitted. "I bought a mold and used melting chocolate. Adrien dipped them in colored chocolate to decorate them."

"Taste tester and sprinkle dipper," Adrien joked. "Marinette did all of the hard work, though."

"And will continue to do so," Sabine told him. "Growing a baby is natural, but it's hard work! And very, very exhausting. Pregnancy affects everyone differently, so it's hard to tell early on how hard it will be on the body, but I was footsore and tired pretty much every day going in to my last trimester. And I got tired easily before that." She glanced down at Marinette's stomach again. "You must be early on, right? You're not showing at _all_."

Adrien tried not to laugh as Marinette shook her head, a wide grin on her face. _This_ was the part of the reveal that he was _really_ looking forward to. "I'm actually four and a half months along. It's probably more like four and three quarters now," she added to Adrien. "Since the doctor said just over four and a half on Monday, and it's Saturday now."

Tom and Sabine's jaws had _dropped_. Adrien grinned.

"Four and _three quarters_\- that's nearly _five!_ I started showing at _three!_" Sabine exclaimed, looking gobsmacked. "I know that you're a bit taller than me and short people tend to show earlier, but that's so late!"

"Our doctor said that the baby is perfectly healthy and growing well, though," Adrien assured them. "Mari is just going to have a _tiny_ belly." He couldn't explain to Tom and Sabine _why_ Marinette was so in shape that her stomach muscles could hold the baby back so much, but hopefully they were too excited to ask about it _too_ much. So Adrien just grinned at Tom instead. "So you're only going to have to wait- what? Four months? Just over that?"

Tom perked up. "Oh, that _is_ true!"

"Did you just find out?" Sabine asked Marinette, sounding puzzled. Marinette nodded sheepishly.

"We've been busy," Adrien pointed out quickly. "Things have been insane, so we really didn't notice anything was up until- what? Two weeks ago? A week and a half ago?"

Tom laughed at that. "_That_ must have come as a surprise. Well, at least there's less of a wait for you, _and_ for us." He rubbed his hands together eagerly. "A baby in four months! I can't wait!"

"It'll absolutely fly by," Sabine assured them. "But you two will be _great_ parents. Maybe you'll have less time to prepare than most parents, but you'll be fine."

"This calls for a nice slice of cake to celebrate!" Tom said, ushering them back towards the table. "And I _definitely_ need some rattles with my slice. Those are _adorable_."

* * *

As the other grandparent, Mr. Agreste probably should have been the next person to find out about Marinette's pregnancy. But Mr. Agreste was too busy to meet up with them, apparently, so Nino and Alya got to be next.

They had decided to not-so-subtly drop some hints by having Marinette working on making baby clothes when Nino and Alya were visiting and seeing how long it took for them to catch on. Marinette already had some ideas for baby clothes- unisex, of course, since their little catbug hadn't been cooperative at the scan- and she couldn't _wait_ to get started.

They only had four months, after all, and their catbug would grow quickly. That meant that their baby would probably outgrow a lot of stuff within a couple months.

...well, unless Marinette could figure out how to make _expanding_ baby clothes. She had already started making a folder on her computer of ideas on how she might be able to make adjustable baby clothing that would take their baby longer to outgrow.

As far as she could tell, extra snaps was probably the way to go. Snaps and elastic and Velcro.

"Nino and Alya are here!"

Marinette looked up from where she was working on a sleeveless baby jumpsuit, pinning black piping to the ladybug-spotted outfit. "Sweet! I'm excited to tell them," she added. "They've been talking about having kids too, haven't they?"

"Yeah, I think so!"

Adrien pressed the button to let Nino and Alya in the downstairs door, and Marinette went back to work. Once she got the outfit done, she wanted to do one in Chat Noir's colors, with a cute kitty face on the front. Adrien had suggested that she do one that looked like Masha's face, since the older cat seemed so attached to her ever since she got pregnant.

There was probably going to be a shirt that said "I'm Kitty's Favorite" at some point, if Masha had the same attitude once their catbug was born.

It didn't take long for Nino and Alya to get upstairs. Alya was first through the door, grinning widely.

"I smell cookies!" she sang. "And boy oh boy, could I go for a cookie!"

"Well, I made plenty," Marinette said with a laugh, pinning the last bit of piping in place and turning to greet her friends. "Your favorites, too."

"Oh, goodie!"

"We _do_ come over for more than the treats," Nino assured them as he came in the door. "I swear. Alya's just really enthusiastic about sugar at the moment- wait, is that a _baby outfit_ that you're making?"

….well. That hadn't taken long at all. Marinette hadn't thought that Nino was that observant about those sorts of things, but he did surprise her sometimes.

"Wait, how did you kn-? I don't _already _look pregnant, do I?" Alya asked, sounding startled, and Marinette blinked in surprise as she looked over at her friend. "Nino, you _said_ that I wasn't showing yet!"

"What?"

Alya looked even more confused by Marinette's confusion. "Wait, what?" Then she gasped. "_Oh my god-_"

"_YOU'RE PREGNANT, TOO?" _both women shrieked excitedly.

The next second, they were hugging each other, squealing in excitement for several minutes. Behind her, Marinette was vaguely aware of Adrien and Nino exchanging congratulations..

"How far along are you?" Alya wanted to know as soon as they separated. "I'm at two months, about. You've got to be the same, right?"

Marinette giggled. Oh, the look on Alya's face would be _precious_. "That's what my mom guessed, too! But no, I'm almost at five months," she told her friend. "It was a _huge_ surprise."

Alya gaped. Next to Adrien, Nino's jaw had dropped, too. He shot a questioning look at Adrien, but Adrien just grinned and nodded in confirmation.

"You have _got_ to be joking! Really?"

"Really," Marinette confirmed. "It's crazy, isn't it? I thought I could only be two or three months at most, but apparently not."

"Do you know if you're getting a boy or a girl?" Alya wanted to know. "You have to know, right? Your baby is _definitely_ old enough for it."

Adrien laughed. "Baby didn't want to cooperate. We're going to have to wait for the next scan to see if they've moved to a better position."

"How did you miss that?" Nino wanted to know. "Alya knew after- what, babe, a month and a half? We've just been holding out on telling people since it's so early."

"There was a combination of factors, honestly," Marinette admitted. "Really, it just boiled down to us being _crazy_ busy and not having the time to notice that anything was off. Masha noticed before we did."

They all looked down at Masha, who had already wound herself around Marinette's ankles. Sasha, on the other hand, seemed entranced by Nino's shoelaces.

"Cats are smart," Nino said, nodding sagely. He tried to move his shoes out of way of Sasha's claws and sighed when she followed him. "Well. Some of them."

"Sasha is smart in different ways," Adrien said with a laugh, bending down to pick Sasha up. She let out a _mrow_ of protest as she was removed from her new toy, but she promptly dropped the protest when Adrien picked up one of her toys and gave it to her. "She'd be a lovely hunter, but we decided to spare the local bird population and keep her inside."

"The birds thank you, I'm sure."

"Your parents must be over the moon," Alya told Marinette, pulling the conversation back on track. "You've told them, right? You're the first people to know about us, since I'm pretty early along."

Nino snorted. "Oh, they know all right. I stopped in the bakery two days ago, and Mr. Dupain was practically dancing around. He wouldn't say why, though, so I just figured that he was having a really good day."

"Papa is _super_ excited," Marinette said with a laugh. "I went over there yesterday and Maman told me that he's drafted six designs for baby-themed cakes already. There'll probably be one for when we tell my Nonna, one for when Great-Uncle Cheng visits and we tell _him_, one when the baby is born, first birthday…"

Adrien groaned. "So much cake."

"It'll be spread out. And at least one of those will probably be a croquembouche tower."

"And what about your father?" Alya asked Adrien. "Does he know- no?"

Adrien was shaking his head. "_Gabriel_ is releasing a new line soon and he's been too busy to meet with us in person so we can tell him. And he keeps telling us that if we have any big news, we need to tell him in person." Which was _ridiculous_ if he wasn't going to be available to them at all. Adrien was pretty sure the requirement was in response to Mr. Agreste finding out that Marinette had gotten a job in a different fashion house via tabloid headlines, five months after she and Adrien had gotten married. Apparently there was a segment of the population that considered it a _huge_ scandal that Marinette hadn't gone to work at _Gabriel_, considering that she had married its founder's son, and his father was part of that population. Even now, Gabriel was still holding out hope that Marinette would join his company. "So I guess we're waiting to tell him. Which could be pretty funny, honestly, if we don't get to tell him for another month or so."

"And if you're so slow to show a bump, you could 100% get away with it," Alya added. She shook her head as she looked at Marinette's stomach again. "Oh, gosh. I _know_ I'm not going to be that lucky with my baby bump. My mom showed early, even with Nora."

"Everyone really is different, I guess," Marinette said with a laugh. "It'll be interesting to see how we each grow. Who knows, maybe I'll just pop all of a sudden."

"Or no one will believe that you're even pregnant until the day before you give birth," Nino added in. "Either way- exciting! Our kids are going to be _so_ close in age, it's going to be _great_."

* * *

_a/n: So this was meant to be an outtake, and then after it hit 10k I had to break it up into chapters and into its own story. It was largely written when I posted the last chapter of HTFAM, but I decided to keep it a secret :D_

_This was partially inspired by a story that I read in the newspaper once about a servicewoman who gave birth and hadn't even known that she was pregnant, because she was so incredibly in shape/had so little fat that she wasn't getting periods, and then the stomach muscles were strong enough to hide it. I decided to look it up, and there are a number of stories about people who have gone months or even full-term with a baby and just. like. didn't realize it._

_So naturally, I decided to play with that idea. And it turned into six chapters._


	2. Chapter 2

Adrien didn't know why he had thought that telling his father would be easy.

In theory, it should have been simple enough- after all, they just needed to schedule a dinner with Mr. Agreste and then tell him. After all, that was what they had done with Marinette's parents (minus, of course, the _scheduling_ bit, since they regularly had weekly dinners).

Of course, that assumed that Gabriel could actually manage to make the time for a dinner with them. That apparently was not the case, even though the _Gabriel_ launch went fairly smoothly, the frantic lead-up and release only taking up two weeks. But following right on the heels of the launch was a whole slew of meetings with investors, followed by a series of somewhat alarming doctor's appointments on Gabriel's part following what he referred to as an _incident_ in the office.

Apparently Gabriel _sorely_ needed to take a break for a bit and cash in on a chunk of the vacation time he had built up over the years _before_ the stress from running the company ended up affecting his heart any more than it already had. Nathalie had taken the doctor's recommendation one step further and insisted that he travel out of the country, just to keep him out of the office and away from all of the reports on how the company was doing.

He was leaving in three weeks, since that was the earliest that Nathalie could get together all of the reservations that Mr. Agreste needed for his extended vacation. Marinette and Adrien phoned up Nathalie again after they got the news, asking if Mr. Agreste would be able to have dinner together with them. She penciled them in, only to call back the evening before to let them know that Mr. Agreste was meeting with _one more_ client and couldn't make the dinner.

"Of _course_," Adrien groaned as he hung up. "He probably figures that we met up with him recently enough, since we just had dinner with him before we found out that you're pregnant. But he's bound to want to see us once more before he leaves for two months, right?"

Marinette looked rather uncertain. "Uh…"

…..on second thought, yeah, maybe Marinette had a point. His father had gone for longer without having dinner with the two of them. After all, Mr. Agreste probably just saw the dinners as a way to get a abbreviated update on what Adrien was up to, and to try to get Marinette to quit her current design house and instead be a designer at _Gabriel. _He could get the updates from Nathalie just as well, and Marinette had just rejected his n-th offer at their previous dinner.

Still, that didn't mean that they shouldn't _try_. Besides, they had had a doctor's appointment of their own coming up the following week, so they would hopefully find out if they were having a boy or a girl.

"My Nonna Gina is coming up this week," Marinette told Adrien, pulling him out of thoughts of wondering exactly _how_ difficult it might be to break the news to his father. "I was thinking that we could break the news over here over dinner, because she wants to see the kitties while she's here."

"Are you thinking of having her over with our usual Saturday evening dinner with your parents, or midweek?" Adrien asked, trying to figure out what dates he could give Nathalie to see if his father was free. "I think it might be your parents' turn to host Saturday dinner, but we could always change that."

"Midweek, I think."

Adrien nodded. That made sense. Marinette would want to see her grandma as often as possible while she was in the city, so having more than one meal together would do that. "Can you see which evening she wants to do as soon as possible? I'll try to reschedule with my father."

"Of course!"

"And then do you want to go shopping to get a few more baby supplies tomorrow, since we won't have to be home by a certain time to meet up with my father?" Adrien asked her. "I know we're probably going to be fine with baby clothes, but we _do_ need a crib and a changing table, and a baby carrier, and- oh, all that stuff."

Marinette winced. "Yay, _shopping_. I suppose we should get that done before I get _too_ far along, though."

Adrien laughed. "Nearly six months isn't considered too far along?"

Marinette patted her still-very-flat stomach. "Not while I still look like this, it isn't."

"Should- should we wear disguises while we're out?" Adrien suggested after a moment's pause. "I mean, I think we've stayed out of the tabloids so far, since someone would have to look _super_ close to even be able to guess that you're pregnant. But if anyone happened to see us buying a lot of baby stuff, they might put the pieces together."

"Just like old times, sneaking around to stay out of the tabloids." Marinette huffed out a breath, then nodded. "Yeah. Nothing crazy, but baseball hats and sunglasses would probably get us pretty far. Maybe a scarf."

"Sounds good." Adrien reached out, giving Marinette's hand a gentle squeeze. "I'm sorry my side of the family keeps making us do this. I really thought that he would have gotten better after the whole prank wedding and surprise engagement things, but I guess I shouldn't have been holding my breath."

"At least we won't have to sneak around for as long this time," Marinette said. A small smile had snuck onto her face. "And it'll only be the occasional trip out where we have to sneak. It's not bad at all." She giggled. "It kind of makes me feel like a teenager again, sneaking around and trying to get away with stuff that I'm not meant to be doing."

"Like saving the city?" Adrien suggested, though he knew right away that that wasn't _quite_ what she had meant. That hadn't been sneaking for the sake of sneaking. "Or more like me trying to sneak out and see a movie without my father finding out, I guess."

"The latter. I never really had to do that, I guess." Marinette shuffled on the couch and Adrien kept one eye on her, trying not to hover but not wanting to leave her if she was at all uncomfortable. She might not be showing a lot yet, but that didn't mean that the pregnancy wasn't having _other_ effects. "And maybe we could eat out after we finish our shopping? I can ask my parents if we can borrow the bakery van to put the stuff we buy in, so we won't have to haul it around."

That sounds good. And speaking of eating, I'll get dinner started. You can put your feet up." Adrien grabbed the large pillow that Marinette favored for propping her feet up, passing it over so she didn't have to reach. "If we're going to be out and about shopping tomorrow, you don't want to start out with sore feet."

"You are the _best_, honestly." Marinette accepted the pillow, shuffling around to sit sideways on the couch. Masha hopped up next to her right away. "My sweet kitties."

Adrien laughed as he headed into the kitchen. "I have to compete with my own cats for affection now. Fantastic."

"There's no contest," Marinette called after him, laughter in her voice. "You'll always be my favorite."

* * *

They really should have outgrown the sneaking around by now. But still, Adrien and Marinette found themselves dressing up just enough to hide their faces and Adrien's hair before heading out. Tom and Sabine had agreed to loan them the bakery van for the evening, and had promised to help if they ever wanted to do more baby shopping on a Sunday.

"When was the last time we have a tabloid article written about us, even?" Adrien asked as Marinette carefully navigated towards the first store that they wanted to visit. "It's been a couple years, hasn't it? Ever since you got your job at _Lotus_ instead of at _Gabriel_ and the whole fashion world went into a tizzy."

"Yeah, I think so," Marinette said, frowning. "There might have been others, I don't know. I haven't exactly been looking. It's not like I care about what they're saying about me. They have no power."

"I don't know if my father's been looking, either, but it would suck if a client came in and congratulated him on his first grandkid because _they_ paid attention." Adrien winced at the thought of the chewing-out they would get. He might be too old now to be getting scoldings from his father, but try telling Mr. Agreste that. "Better safe than sorry."

"Oh, we should have invited Nino and Alya out," Marinette said a few minutes later. "They're bound to want to start shopping for stuff soon. But maybe that would make us too identifiable."

Adrien grinned. "More so than the van with your parents' bakery logo on it?"

"I was hoping that no one would pay _too_ close attention to that, honestly."

It didn't take long for them to get to the store. Adrien adjusted his hat once more so that none of his trademark blond was sticking out, then followed Marinette inside.

It...was overwhelming. Everything was colorful and there were rows upon rows of toys and cribs and baby carriers and bottles and _everything_. Adrien blinked as he glanced around, a little lost.

"First things first," Marinette said, and Adrien snapped to attention. Right, he could follow her lead. "A cart! Then, uh…."

...okay, she was just as lost.

Plagg stuck his head out of Adrien's collar and yawned, showing off his teeth. "Why do you need all of this stuff? People back in _my_ day just tossed their kids in a cleaned animal skin with a bit of moss and called it a day."

"_Not_ helpful, Plagg."

"Big things first," Tikki piped up helpfully. "A crib and carrier and feeding seat thing, right?"

"Right," Marinette echoed. She glanced around, then headed purposefully towards the first aisle of cribs. "So I've been talking to my coworkers about cribs, just so we wouldn't have to look at _everything_, and they said that a crib that can transition to a toddler bed would be good, especially if we don't get to move to a three-bedroom apartment by the time our catbug is ready to be done with the crib. And I got a list of good brands, too."

"Oh, thank _god_," Adrien said immediately, practically sagging with relief. "I can tell from here that there are a _ton_ of crib options, so that's great that we don't have to look at all of them."

"Yeah, that would stink. My ankles are already sore." Marinette bent down to glance at a box, then straightened. "I mean, not _super_ sore, but…"

"Were you on your feet a lot at work?"

Marinette made a face. "Yeah. There were fittings all day, and I didn't think to ask if I could be on the alterations team instead." She sighed. "I'll be fine for a couple hours, probably. We just won't be able to continue shopping after dinner for more than an hour."

"That would be my limit for shopping, anyway," Adrien said cheerfully. "Besides, I can try to get the crib set up tonight once we get home, if we have the time and I still have any energy left."

It didn't take long for them to decide on a crib, and Adrien wrestled it into the cart. A baby carrier was next, and once again Marinette had done her research and figured out which ones would be good.

Even with Marinette's preparation, they were both tired by the time Adrien pushed the cart out to the parking lot and they loaded their purchases into the van. There had still been choices to be made and features to discuss, and they had done a quick walk-through of the entire store to make sure that they had a list of other baby things that they would have to buy (or make, or otherwise obtain) before their baby arrived.

"Still more fun than dinner with my father," Adrien said cheerfully as they loaded the last box in and got in the van to drive to a restaurant not far from the baby store. "_Much_ more fun. And actually productive, too."

"We still have to manage at least _one_ dinner with him before the baby arrives," Marinette chided him gently. "Even if it isn't fun."

"And preferably before he leaves, I know." Adrien glanced over at Marinette. "What are the chances that he _actually_ relaxes on this trip? I know Nathalie made him go on it so that he couldn't go into the office at home, but he's still going to have his tablets and his sketchpads and access to his email."

"Designing itself isn't _that_ stressful, though," Marinette objected. "At least not for me, unless I have a crazy timeline or something."

"He's going to give himself timelines, though. And he'll expect that he produce an entire line's worth of sketches by the time he gets back, I just know it." Adrien rolled his eyes, then changed the subject. Talking about his father would _never_ be fun. "So when is your Nonna going to arrive? Early in the week, midweek…?"

"Midweek. She's arriving on Tuesday evening, then we'll have her and my parents over Wednesday." Marinette gave a little wiggle in her seat. "I can't wait to tell her! We've already told all of our friends and my coworkers and my parents, so we're kind of running out of people to surprise with the news. And we have the doctor's appointment on Tuesday, too, so we might have more news for my parents."

Adrien grinned. "Are we making buns again?"

Marinette could only giggle. "If you want. Maybe we can be less obvious about it this time. No knocking buns around this time. It hurt my poor baker's daughter heart."

"We can just announce that we have buns in the oven and leave it at that," Adrien said cheerfully. "I'm sure that your parents will be all _wink-wink-nudge-nudge_ at that, so maybe she'll catch that hint."

"Are you sure that we're talking about the same person here?" Marinette joked. "My Nonna, pick up on a hint?"

Adrien could only give her a fond eye roll. "I'm sure she can't be _that_ oblivious."

* * *

Marinette's Nonna Gina was _officially_ the most oblivious person that Adrien had met, and that was saying something, considering- well, considering that technically, he knew himself.

She had completely missed all talk of buns in the oven. She hadn't spotted the pile of in-progress baby clothes that Marinette had left on the armrest of their couch. Tom and Sabine had mentioned their experiments with different versions of the rattle sprinkles, and there wasn't so much as a blink. Adrien mentioned his difficulties putting together the crib to Tom, who agreed to help him look it over, and Gina mused about the first time she had volunteered on an international house-building team and how she had struggled to learn how to use the different power tools there.

...Adrien gave up, really. Gina was lovely and clearly cared for her granddaughter and was very _there_, but it seemed like she wasn't always listening to what other people were saying.

Finally, Marinette decided to go in for the kill and ask her Nonna what baby clothing styles were in the different countries that she had visited.

Gina _still_ didn't catch on.

"Oh, it varies _so_ much," she told Marinette right away. "Most people just go for the typical onesies, and then tiny pants or skirts once they're a little older. But some people go for a bit of local flair- are you doing a line of baby clothing at work? That's so cute!"

Marinette sent Adrien a Look. Adrien winced.

Okay, he _so_ owed Marinette a back rub. He had bet that Gina wasn't as oblivious as Marinette thought, and, well, clearly he was very, very wrong.

She probably deserved one back rub for each hint that Gina missed, honestly.

"I should show you some of the photos I took of these Guatemalan babies- they were dressed just like their mommas. I could not believe the embroidery on their little outfits- it was absolutely _exquisite._ I don't have the pictures on me, but I can send them to you," Gina assured Marinette. "And I can send you any other pictures that I find. It might take a bit, though, I have _so_ many photos."

"I'm sure, Nonna," Marinette managed before Gina was off again.

"I did see this one baby once- I didn't get a picture, because not all moms allow it- but she was dressed in the _most_ ridiculous outfit for a baby that size. All ruffles and snaps and floppy bits and it had to be _so_ hard to wash. It was cute! But not practical at _all_. So Marinette-a, when your team is designing baby outfits, tell them that they have to think of the practical aspects, too. There aren't all sorts of bits and bobs on normal baby outfits for a _reason_."

Adrien tried not to laugh at the look Tom and Sabine were exchanging behind Gina's back.

They finally got through dinner and Marinette and Adrien cleared the table. They retreated to the kitchen to get the plates loaded into the dishwasher and to have a bit of a conversation while they had a bit of privacy.

"I _told_ you that she was oblivious," Marinette said as she handed rinsed plates down to Adrien for him to load. "I mean, what else can we _do?_ My parents are going to go ga-ga over the cupcakes once _those_ get out and it's not like those were subtle at _all_, so it won't be a secret after that, but…"

"We can share the news about the apartment hunt," Adrien pointed out. "I mean, we obviously wouldn't be looking for an apartment with another room for our _cats_. It's worth a shot," he added when Marinette's expression turned dubious. "And if not, her reaction when she figures out all of the hints that she's been missing has _got_ to be pretty funny."

It didn't take long for them to get things in, and then the two of them headed back out to the table. Gina had been distracted by Sasha begging for attention, and Tom had claimed Masha. No sooner did Marinette sit down, though, before Masha was jumping over to her chair to curl up in her lap.

"Aww," Tom groaned. "C'mon, Masha, you get to hang out with Marinette all week. Come sit with _me_ for once."

"Marinette is her favorite at the moment," Adrien said with a laugh. "I don't think that's going to change overnight."

Marinette grinned as she ran a hand over Masha's back. "You're just jealous that I get the lap warmer."

Adrien laughed. "You say that as though you don't sit in my lap all the time."

"_And_ you're jealous that my lap is already full so you can't put _your_ head there."

Adrien considered that. "Okay, fair enough."

The whole group laughed.

"So, we've made some progress on looking for a new apartment," Marinette said, changing the subject. "We took your advice and met up with our landlady, and she _does_ have larger apartments that she rents out."

"And there was an open spot?" Tom asked, looking surprised. "That was fast."

"Not quite," Marinette corrected him. "There aren't any open spots, but we've been put on a list of interested renters. So when someone decides to move out, then we'll get contacted first. We're just trying to decide on how many rooms we want- if we're going from two-bedroom to three-bedroom, or if we just want to jump straight to four so that we don't end up moving again in another couple of years. It depends on how big the master is, probably," she added. "If it would be large enough for me to section off a bit for my sewing space, we could probably do three-bedroom and just move my sewing things once we need the third room."

Sabine nodded. "And I think you mentioned wanting to move to a more townhouse-style home eventually, so it would make sense to go to three-bedroom first instead. Four-bedroom apartments in Paris are going to be _expensive_."

"And you need to think about how much free time you're really going to have at home," Tom chimed in. "Really large projects might be off the table for a bit. So do you get to look at someone's apartment in the upcoming weeks to decide on that?"

Before Adrien or Marinette could respond, Gina chimed in again. "Are you trying to add a guest room, Marinette-a? That would be _so_ expensive in Paris, the prices here are absolutely out of this world. Besides, any visitors you have could stay with your parents, surely. They have the guest room _and_ your old room, Marinette, so you two shouldn't need any. Or guests can stay in a hotel, it'll cost less to rent a room for the night than it will to rent a bigger apartment all the time. Why, when I was living in Costa Rica-"

The rest of them exchanged a look of disbelief as Gina chattered on about how expensive apartments could get when they were more than two bedrooms. They were good when there were several individuals sharing the apartment, but otherwise…

Adrien was very, very glad that they had decorated the cupcakes as obnoxiously as they had. Originally, he had thought that the painfully pink frosting and IT'S A GIRL toppers adorning the cupcakes were a bit in-your-face (especially paired with more of the handmade rattle candies), but there was no way Gina would catch on otherwise.

"Did your doctor's visit earlier this week go well, Marinette?" Sabine asked as soon as Gina had finished with her (very extensive) commentary on apartment prices around the globe. "Monday, was it? Or yesterday?"

"Yesterday," Marinette confirmed, glancing over at Adrien. "And it went well- we can discuss it over dessert, perhaps?"

Adrien nodded, recognizing his cue, and hopped up to bring in the covered platter of cupcakes. He took a moment to make sure that they would be facing the right direction, then brought them out. With a flourish, he uncovered the tray.

There were twin "Oh, it's a _girl!_"s from Tom and Sabine, and a _very_ startled "OH!_" _from Gina.

Adrien grinned, thoroughly enjoying the reactions. Tom and Sabine were the picture of proud grandparents, and Gina- well, Gina was apparently _finally_ catching on to all of the hints that they had dropped.

Marinette had been fully overtaken by giggles at her Nonna's expression.

"You're having a _baby_!" Gina exclaimed at last. "Oh! So that was why you were asking about baby clothes, and have baby outfits on the couch, and were talking about moving, and- oh! Buns in the oven! That was _exactly_ how Tom announced _you_ to the world!" Gina added to Marinette.

Tom laughed. "And then you asked if we were feeling all right because we kept talking about those buns. We had to change to a more direct approach."

"And a girl! What exciting news!" Sabine added. "It's good she cooperated this time around. The first time they went in, their baby was in the wrong position to see anything," she told Gina. "So we were _so_ hoping that this time, they would have more luck."

"And we got the first kick during the appointment," Marinette added. "Right after, actually, before Adrien and I went back to work."

"I could have missed it if it came any later," Adrien told them. "We got lucky."

"_Kicking-_ wait, how far along _are_ you?" Gina wanted to know. "You're too small for kicking."

"Nearly six months," Marinette told her, and both of them grinned at the flabbergasted look on Gina's face. It _never_ got old, this inadvertent pranking via tiny, tiny belly. "We found out that I was pregnant at almost five months, because I just didn't pick up on any of the clues before then."

Gina seemed at a loss for words.

"Their friend Alya is also pregnant," Tom told his mom. "Though _she_ figured it out _much_ earlier along than Marinette did. They're going to have their kids about three months apart."

"Oh, what fun!" Gina positively lit up, momentarily forgetting her shock. "Your kids can grow up together! And oh, what exciting news! A great-granddaughter! You're going to make me feel old."

"You're aging wonderfully, mom," Tom said at once. "Still young at heart."

Sabine was beaming. "First kick! That's big news. You might have trouble sleeping at night once she really gets active. You were really wriggly- always punching and kicking. Once you got started, you didn't want to stop. It was like you were acting out one of those superhero cartoons in the womb."

Tom laughed at that. "Yes, I remember that. The first few days of kicks were magical. After that, not so much."

"It was still magical, just not when I was trying to sleep." Sabine flashed Marinette a fond smile. "So! Emma, then?"

"Right!" They had talked about the names that Adrien and Marinette were considering several dinners ago, and they had decided on either Emma or Hugo, depending on the baby's sex. After all, _Louis_ could easily become _Louisa_ if they ended up having another girl instead of two boys. "We still have to tell Nino and Alya that part. They've been begging to know."

"And Adrien's father has yet to find out _anything_, right?" Sabine asked. "He's not managed to pull his head out of his-"

"_Sabine!_"

"We're still working on it," Adrien admitted, trying not to laugh. His in-laws didn't bother to hide their distaste of his father's tendency to blow him and Marinette off, and it was pretty funny. "We've scheduled another dinner with him on Friday, so hopefully he won't cancel on us again. But you have to admit, the longer we go, the funnier it's going to be."

Marinette nodded. "Yeah. As long as we tell him before he leaves on his trip, we'll be fine. Probably."

* * *

_A/N: In case anyone is having trouble with keeping track of how much time has passed so far:_

_-4 1/2 mo: Adrien and Marinette find out_  
_-4 3/4 mo: Tom and Sabine find out_  
_-5 mo: Nino and Alya find out; Gabriel fashion launch lead-up_  
_-5 1/4: Fashion Launch lead-up continued_  
_-5 1/2: Fashion Launch, meetings with investors, etc._  
_-5 3/4: 1st canceled dinner/doctor/Gina told_


	3. Chapter 3

Adrien and Marinette had _planned_ on telling Gabriel about their baby before he left, they really had. But he had canceled their dinner _three weeks in a row _in favor of meeting with _one more client_, and by the time they headed over to the mansion to say goodbye to Gabriel before he hopped in the car, they were a bit tired of getting pushed to the side in favor of work.

And then they got there to find Gabriel in a Mood, irritated because there were reports of long lines in the airport and a traffic jam on the highway. There was no _way_ that they were going to blurt out the news when he was as distracted and irritable as he was. It just wasn't the time.

So they said their goodbyes, pretended that they weren't annoyed when Mr. Agreste brought up the idea of Marinette transferring to work at _Gabriel_ again before he left, and then watched as he got into the car and was driven away.

"Well, so much for _that_ attempt," Adrien said wryly as the mansion's gates closed behind the car. "I guess he's just going to find out when he gets back, then."

Nathalie, whose attention had returned to her tablet as soon as Mr. Agreste had been bundled securely into the car, looked up at them sharply. "Find out what?"

Adrien and Marinette exchanged a grin. They had agreed before arriving that, even if they failed to tell Adrien's father about Marinette's pregnancy, they would at the very least tell Nathalie. She deserved to know, and it wouldn't hurt to have someone else on their side, helping them actually get their family dinner with Mr. Agreste once he returned.

"I'm pregnant," Marinette told Nathalie, grinning as she patted her (_still_ remarkably flat) stomach. "We're going to have a baby soon!"

Nathalie's eyes widened, and then a small smile slipped onto her face. "Oh! Congratulations!"

Adrien beamed. He _knew_ that Nathalie would be excited for them.

It only took a second, however, before Nathalie realized what their earlier words had meant. She looked after the car vanishing down the street, and then promptly decided that Gabriel deserved to be kept in the dark for the two more months that he would be gone.

"Well, no one can say that you didn't _try_," she told them, a small grin appearing on her face. "You scheduled _three_ dinners, and he canceled them, and then you showed up before he left and he _still_ blew you off. Besides, you'll be at, what? Month five or so when he gets back? That's not _insanely_ far along."

"Eight," Adrien and Marinette corrected in unison, and Adrien had a moment of glee as he watched Nathalie's eyes fly wide. For once (or _once again_, he supposed, but it was _such_ a rare occurrence), they had managed to catch Nathalie off guard.

"_Eight?_"

"Well, eight and a quarter," Marinette corrected herself. "I'm just over six months now. We've been trying to tell Mr. Agreste for a month and a half, but he's been too busy."

"_Six months_," Nathalie repeated in clear disbelief. Then she gave herself a shake. "Well, with any luck, the tabloids won't have picked it up? I mean, it _will_ be winter…"

Marinette perked up. "Oh! Chunky sweaters!"

"We _have_ already told our other friends," Adrien told Nathalie as Marinette clearly drifted off into daydreams about fashionable chunky sweaters that she could find or make. "And Marinette's coworkers. We _tried_ to tell Father first, but…"

"No, you shouldn't be expected to sit on your news just because Gabriel can't make space in his schedule," Nathalie told them briskly. "Even though he knew full well that I could have handled some of the meetings before he left, and I _will_ be handling the ones that happen while he's gone. Maybe this will help him learn that he needs to stop canceling dinners with his _family_ to do business outside of business hours. He was doing better after you got back from London, but he's _really_ slipped recently. This should put him back in line."

Adrien gaped at Nathalie. Part of him had expected that she would tell him that he should have tried harder to get his father's attention somehow, but it sounded more like… "Nathalie, are you actually encouraging me to _prank my father?_"

"I prefer to call it _malicious compliance_, actually." Nathalie's lips turned up at the corners ever-so-slightly. "He's the one who insisted that he had to hear any news from you face-to-face. Personally, I can't wait to see his face when he gets back and finds out that you're expecting a baby in a month."

* * *

All of Marinette's family was super, _super _excited for Emma to arrive. Her parents, of course, were counting down the days to Marinette's due date. Her Nonna Gina cancelled her trip to Peru so that she would be in the city when it was time for Marinette give birth, and her Lao-lao was going to fly over from China to visit after Emma was born. Between her family, friends, and coworkers- and, of course, her own very busy hands- Marinette already had baby clothes lined up for Emma's entire first year and (potentially) into her second.

"Some of this is resizable," Marinette commented as she and Adrien sorted through the clothes, hanging some things up in the closet that she had started clearing in the sewing-slash-baby room and folding others to put away in the dresser. "Other stuff Emma is going to outgrow in a couple months."

"And then Alya and Nino can borrow it for Elodie to wear," Adrien pointed out. "So it'll get a few more months of use before we have to put it into storage." He snickered. "Father is probably going to be beside himself that we already have all of Emma's clothes ready."

"The longer we go without telling him, the more nervous I get," Marinette admitted. She crouched down as much as she could to pet Masha as she wound herself around Marinette's ankles. "But at least we have Nathalie on our side."

"Nathalie is getting a _huge_ kick out of this," Adrien assured her with a laugh. "I shouldn't have been surprised, honestly. She thought the prank wedding was _hilarious_ after she figured us out." He reached over to squeeze her hand. "Honestly, he's going to have to admit that it was his own fault. We tried for six weeks in a _row_ to schedule a dinner with him to share the news, and he either couldn't fit a dinner in or canceled it last-minute. And in the meantime, we've had dinners with your parents at _least_ once a week, usually twice now that they know about Emma."

"Speaking of which, we need to finish this up and head over," Marinette commented, glancing at her watch. "We can't deny Maman her chance to coo over the _tiny_ bump that's finally appeared."

Adrien laughed at that. "Alya is jealous, you know. Her bump is already bigger."

"I know." Marinette patted her stomach fondly. "I like that it's small, too. I'm not waddling or anything yet. Maman said that she was at seven months, but I've not really been affected at all yet. Well, besides getting tired and the cravings, at least."

It didn't take them long at all to finish folding and hanging up the rest of the clothes. Adrien grinned at the neat piles of tiny clothing as they got tucked away into the dresser that he and Marinette had gotten for Emma's stuff.

It was getting so real now. He couldn't wait to meet his daughter.

"Ready to go over to your parents' place now?"

"I gotta go to the bathroom first!" Marinette announced, making a beeline out of the room. "I'll be right out! And- oh my _gosh_, Adrien, can you keep Masha from following me into the bathroom? I don't need her staring at me when I'm trying to go."

"On it!" Adrien called, jogging to catch Masha before she could slip past Marinette into the bathroom. Ignoring her protests, he scooped her up and carried her into the living room so that Marinette could use the bathroom in peace. He snuggled their cat, grinning at the disgruntled look Masha sent him.

"Well, maybe Emma isn't announcing her presence with a huge belly, but she sure is having an impact on Marinette's bladder," Adrien told the cat, scratching under her chin until she started purring. "But you _do_ know that you don't need to supervise, right? They'll be fine."

* * *

Their efforts to get the baby room ready had started in earnest at seven months, two weeks. Adrien and Marinette had tried to keep everything more or less organized as they got more and more stuff for Emma, but sometimes _organized_ meant stacking it neatly in the closet instead of having it out. But they would get more busy (and in Marinette's case, more tired) during the time before Marinette gave birth, so they had to get it done now.

The problem was that there wasn't _quite_ enough space to have all of the baby stuff out _and_ have Marinette's sewing things set up in the same room.

"What do you think about moving your sewing machine and desk and maybe the mannequins into our bedroom?" Adrien suggested. "We have a lot more space in there than in here. And once Emma starts crawling, we can keep her out of here and away from the pins and needles. If you had the machine in the living room area, she could get into things."

Marinette considered that, then nodded. "That sounds good. We might have to wait for my dad to come over to dinner to do that, because I don't think I'm meant to be lifting things."

"No lifting heavy things, yeah." Adrien glanced around the room. "Okay, so in the meantime- how much is there to get ready with the crib? I know you said that there can't be any blankets _in_ the crib."

Marinette nodded. "Yeah, not for the first year. That's why we have the basket under the crib, to keep a couple blankets there for when we're holding Emma. The other blankets and the quilt I made are going in the top of the closet for now."

"And then we have a basket of burping cloths, and a space for packages of diapers, and we need to unearth the baby carrier," Adrien added. "Uh- do you want to put stuff in the baskets, maybe, and I can move the furniture around? And then we can sort out all of the toys that we've been getting from people."

"And then can you get the baby mobile up?" Marinette asked hopefully. "It's so cute, I just want to see it out of the box."

Adrien laughed as he remembered that particular present from Marinette's parents. Somehow they had found a pastry-themed mobile and had swapped out a couple of the duplicate cupcakes for baguettes and croissants. "We'll have to make sure that it's high enough that the cats don't go for it."

"Oh, we're going to find them in here, totally entranced by the mobile, aren't we?"

It didn't take long for the nursery to start to take shape. The crib was pushed to one corner and the changing table in another. Marinette packed up her sewing machine and Adrien carried it to their bedroom, along with the chair from her sewing table and her two mannequins. The things that they wouldn't need in the room but wanted ready- the baby carrier and the high chair- both got unpacked and placed next to the crib, and the packaging was brought out- well, after the use and cleaning instructions had been extracted and tucked away in Emma's dresser.

And that was pretty much all they got done for the day.

"Okay, I gotta sit," Marinette announced. "My ankles are starting to hurt. Maybe we can get more done tomorrow. Or the next day. Or next weekend."

"It's going to be a little difficult to move around in here until you get your sewing desk moved," Adrien agreed. "And we've made really good progress! I think that's enough for today."

"Can we make cookies now?" Tikki asked hopefully. "We ran out two days ago."

"I can make cookies," Adrien assured her. "Marinette? Any requests?"

"The sea salt pretzel ones, maybe?"

Adrien grinned. "The salt and sugar cravings are hitting again, aren't they?"

The only response that he got was Marinette's stuck-out tongue.

"Have you decided yet when you're going to start your maternity leave?" Adrien asked as they headed out to the living room. "I know you were planning on discussing it with Belle yesterday."

"She said that I can work as long as I want, and we can increase the number of days that I work from home as time goes on and I get too tired to go in to work," Marinette reported. "And then I think I have to start proper leave three weeks before my due date? That's what we've done the paperwork for, at least." She made a face. "I feel like I'm going to go either go crazy with boredom or with fussing around to try to make everything perfect. At least I'll have Tikki to talk to during the day."

"And you don't _have_ to stay at home," Adrien reminded her, heading into the kitchen and starting to pull bowls down for the cookies. Tikki flew after him, interested. "It's not like you're on bed rest. You can go visit your parents. And didn't you say that Abbey might be visiting during that time?"

"She might, yeah. She hasn't decided for sure yet."

It didn't take long for them to fall into a comfortable silence. Marinette curled up with a blanket, a book, and the ever-hovering Masha while Adrien got down to work in the kitchen, tossing chocolate and butterscotch chips to Tikki as he mixed up the dough. After a while Sasha appeared, meowing for treats.

"Plagg, did you teach her to do this?" Adrien asked with some exasperation as Sasha made an attempt to climb up his leg. "She didn't use to be such a beggar."

"Blame my papa," Marinette called from the other room. "He's been teasing her with table scraps. I've been telling him not to, but he never listens."

"We might have to start shutting the cats up in the bedroom during dinner," Adrien suggested. He scooped Sasha up and carried her out to Marinette. "I need to put the cookies in the oven and I don't want her tumbling in."

"Double kitty cuddles!" Marinette snuggled Sasha under her chin. "You get to stay put, my little troublemaker."

Sasha let out an annoyed _mmrew_ but stayed put.

Without a hungry shadow attached to his leg, Adrien finished scooping out the first trays of cookies in no time and put them in the oven. Once the timer was set, he pulled out his phone to check it. It wasn't long before he made a face and let out an irritated noise.

"What is it?"

"Nathalie just texted. Apparently my father wants to talk to us over Facetime. I'm guessing that not having the _option_ of being able to call us over with a day's notice has been chafing at him a bit." Adrien rolled his eyes as he headed out to join Marinette on the couch. "Nathalie quoted him, actually- he said that he wanted to talk since we 'didn't have the chance to properly get together before his departure'."

Marinette snorted. "Gee, I wonder why."

"And we might as well do it, or we'll have him pestering us all the time," Adrien said, feeling a bit discouraged. He- well, _they_\- had kind of been banking on the two-month separation (and the couple months of _very_ minimal contact prior) would drive his father into actually honoring their scheduled dinner. With a Facetime "meeting" mid-vacation, Mr. Agreste would probably consider that enough interaction with his son and daughter-in-law for another couple months.

At this rate, Emma would already be born by the time Adrien's father could spare the time to meet with them again.

"Do you want to tell him the news when we're Facetiming him?" Marinette asked. "Or do you want to do the- what did Nathalie call it? Malicious compliance?"

Tikki frowned. "I don't like that name! It sounds _mean_."

"It just refers to deliberately following what someone said _exactly_, even if we know or suspect that it wasn't exactly what they _actually_ meant." Adrien grinned. "Like, I bet my father would include Facetime as face-to-face interactions. We're ignoring that on purpose. I'd prefer to make him wait, honestly," he added to Marinette. "Since otherwise he's not going to bother ever having us over for dinner in person again."

Marinette laughed. "That's what I was thinking, too."

Even with Mr. Agreste's request, it took several days for them to get a Facetime video set up and actually get it done. He canceled on them once- apparently he had met a prospective client, which was _maddening_ considering that he was meant to be on vacation and resting- and then actually honored the appointment the second time.

Adrien was Not Impressed.

As it turned out, his father mostly wanted to dictate a bunch of stuff to them about what should be going on at the company, since apparently Nathalie wasn't listening to him. His return was going to coincide with some sort of gala with investors and famous clients and assorted company staff for _Gabriel_, and he wanted to make sure that everything was perfect. He also wanted to make sure that Adrien and Marinette knew that they were expected to be there.

Adrien shot off a text to Nathalie that boiled down to _please can you do this thing that my father is asking about and tell him you did because I don't want to deal with him bugging me about it until you do_.

"Mr. Agreste, we don't have anything to do with the company," Marinette was saying in clear exasperation as Adrien pocketed his phone and glanced back up to re-join the conversation. "There's no point in contacting _us_ about this stuff. Tell Nathalie or one of the other secretaries."

Mr. Agreste waved that objection off, just like he always did. "Yes, well, you're _family_. It's a _family_ business. I've told you time and time again that you should-"

"She's told you _no_, over and over," Adrien cut across, his voice going steely. He was honestly tired of his father doing this, and Marinette shouldn't have to keep turning him down. It was exhausting, and Marinette was already getting tired more easily than usual. "She loves her job where she is, and the design aesthetic at _Gabriel_ isn't anywhere near as good of a fit. Enough with the asking."

His father actually looked taken aback. Marinette reached over, squeezing Adrien's hand gently. He glanced over and she shot him a thankful look.

"How is the vacation going?" Adrien asked once he had taken a second to recompose himself. "Have you visited anywhere interesting?"

"I've been visiting a number of the typical _inspiration_ locations and have found most lacking," Mr. Agreste said stiffly. "The crowds are atrocious, even at this time of the year. Perhaps _especially_ at this time of the year. There are _far_ too many people for my liking."

"Perhaps you could find some easy hikes to go on?" Marinette suggested weakly. "There won't be as many people there, surely, and the nature should be inspi-"

Mr. Agreste snorted, cutting her off mid-word. "It's far too warm in this part of the world to spend that much time outdoors, I haven't got the shoes for hiking nor the desire to, and what would I do if my heart decided to give me trouble while I'm out on my own? No, I won't do any hiking."

There was an awkward silence at that.

"Has- has your heart been giving you any trouble?" Adrien asked tentatively, since clearly attempting further suggestions would get nowhere. His father was determined not to enjoy his vacation, so there was no point in even trying to help.

Mr. Agreste snorted again, waving a dismissive hand. "Not at all. I've _never_ had any trouble, so I don't know what my normal doctor was on about. It's just all exaggeration and nonsense."

...okay, yeah, Adrien was remembering why he hated trying to hold a conversation with his father so much.

Two minutes later, their conversation had devolved to talking about the weather and his father was looking increasingly irritated. Adrien hastily brought the conversation to an end, and both he and Marinette leaned back from the darkened computer screen with a sigh.

"I prefer talking to your Nonna to that," Adrien told Marinette. "She might not listen that well, but at least she clearly enjoys the places that she visits."

Marinette nodded, looking exhausted.

"And a gala…" Adrien let out a long breath. "Every time he tells us to go to one of those, I worry that he's going to try to use peer pressure to force you into the company. I hate it."

"By telling people that I'm going to join the company, you mean?" Marinette asked. "And thinking that I'll be forced to go through with it once it's out there? Because I think he knows that I wouldn't hesitate to correct him. _Loudly_. And that would just embarrass him."

Adrien laughed. "Yeah. If you had any less backbone, I think he would try it. But he knows that you aren't scared of him, so he has to at least _pretend_ to behave." Then he got more serious. "But a gala when he comes back- you'll be at eight months. A little over, actually. You can't wear a chunky sweater to a gala."

"He can try to stop me," Marinette muttered rebelliously. Then she sighed. "I'm still _really _small. I could probably get away with wearing a flowy empire waist dress- actually, I know just the one. It's dark, so that's even better, and sleeveless, so I could wear an open-front sweater- hmm. I'm going to have to think about which one I could pair with the dress. But it's not impossible to hide my bump at a formal event. It's still tiny."

"And we can try to beg out early, as usual," Adrien told her. "Since I'm sure you'll be exhausted."

"I'll be on leave by then, so I can rest up and have all day to get ready. But I'll never argue with leaving early."

"Perfect."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Marinette sagging against Adrien's side as they recovered from the ridiculously exhausting video call. Then Adrien was hit by a fantastic idea.

"Say, I could go for some ice cream to recover from that whole conversation. Do you want any?"

Marinette perked up. "Oh my _god_, yes. Can I have pretzels with mine?"

"Whatever you want, my Lady."


	4. Chapter 4

Month Eight, Week 1. Mr. Agreste returned from his trip in the middle of the night. He was too tired and grouchy from the plane ride (and also a very minor sunburn) for them to even try to slip in a family dinner before the gala that he was _insisting_ they attend.

It was honestly getting ridiculous at this point. Or maybe _getting_ ridiculous was the wrong phrasing.

It already _had_ been ridiculous. It was just worse now.

"If anyone knew to look for it, they would be able to tell that I'm pregnant," Marinette said as she scanned her reflection in the mirror. "Otherwise…"

"Considering that you'll be giving birth in a couple weeks, it's insane that it _isn't_ immediately obvious," Adrien commented. He scanned Marinette's dress, looking it up and down. With the draping sweater hiding the side view of the bump and a gorgeous gold necklace drawing attention to Marinette's neck and away from the bump that was almost entirely hidden by the black empire-waist dress, it would be a rare person who picked up that Marinette was pregnant. "I know exactly where to look, but as long as no one is looking _too_ close they won't pick it up. And no one should have any reason to, really."

"I just worry that someone will figure it out partway through the evening." Marinette fussed with her dress once more, than straightened. "Hopefully they wouldn't just blurt it out in front of a group. Private congratulations I can deal with."

"And that's the most we would get, I think. You don't _look_ that far along, especially not in that dress." Adrien gave Marinette's arm a quick squeeze. "You look radiant, love."

"Thank you."

The Gorilla picked them up, since the gala was a bit out of the city limits and neither Adrien nor Marinette wanted to borrow her parents' bakery van again. Mr. Agreste had already headed out, of course- he had insisted on overseeing the last of the preparations- so they had the car to themselves and were free to update the Gorilla on the progress of Marinette's pregnancy. He listened with an interested expression though, as usual, he didn't make any comments.

"We have approximately three weeks left to tell Father," Adrien commented, and _wow_, saying that out loud really cemented the fact that there was _not_ a lot of time left. "We're talking to Nathalie, of course, to try to get dinner scheduled, but she only has so much control over Father's schedule."

"I've practically resigned myself to showing up for dinner a couple months in the future with Emma in my arms and letting Mr. Agreste find out then," Marinette mumbled into her hands. "That's just how this is going right now."

"I think the papers might have picked up on her by then," Adrien pointed out helpfully. "And honestly, I refuse to hide our kid from the world just because Father can't make time for us. If he finds out the news via tabloid or some investor congratulating him on his granddaughter, so be it."

"I was curious, so I decided to look up stories of other people who didn't discover their babies as early as usual," Marinette told him as they merged onto the highway. "And there were cases where people got to the giving labor part without realizing. And _they_ must have had even smaller bumps than me."

Adrien let out a low whistle. "And _we_ were rushing to get all caught up on all of the tests and forms and whatnot when we found out at four and a half months. I can't even imagine getting to _nine_."

"To be fair, some of them went into labor early. But yeah, the point still stands." Marinette caught herself mid-yawn and made a face. "_Ugh_. I rested all day today, I shouldn't be tired."

Adrien glanced over at her. "How is leave treating you?"

"I like sleeping in. And I got one of my projects done, so there's that." Marinette shrugged. "I'm normally going to be doing more during the day, but I just wanted to be rested up for tonight. Not that it's made any difference, it seems. Maybe it's just because it's dark outside and I'm hungry."

"We'll leave early," Adrien promised. "We can say that you've been working hard at work- which is _true_, even if you've been doing a lot of work from home recently. Maybe we can bring up the idea of scheduling a family dinner next weekend when we see my father."

Marinette made a bit of a face, but she tried to hide it. Adrien couldn't blame her. He was starting to think that they would have to wait two weeks minimum for his father to even _consider_ scheduling a dinner with them, and _that_ would put Marinette at eight months, three weeks.

Traffic was light, and it didn't take overly long for them to arrive at the gala. Adrien and Marinette wove through the crowds, greeting a few people that they recognized and avoiding others that- well, that they recognized but had no interest in talking to. Mostly people who thought that Adrien should return to being a model and Marinette should join _Gabriel_ since she was part of the family now and had no problem telling them exactly that.

"And Father is busy, as always," Adrien sighed once they caught sight of Mr. Agreste, surrounded by designers and investors and department heads clamoring for his attention. "He's not going to work through that crowd until after we've left."

"How deeply unfortunate."

Adrien laughed. Marinette looked as though she wouldn't mind that at all, and frankly he couldn't blame her. Not with how _all_ of their conversations with his father recently had gone.

"We should try to talk to Nathalie, at least," Adrien decided a few minutes later. "She might have an idea of what his schedule is going to look like and if we could schedule a dinner."

Marinette glanced over at the gaggle of people waiting to catch his father's attention and made another face. Adrien followed her gaze and this time, he spotted Nathalie in the middle of the fray, looking harried as she typed things into her tablet.

Things weren't looking hopeful, then.

Still, that didn't meant that they couldn't at least _try_ to have fun. The food provided was delicious, of course- Tikki enjoyed the dessert spread while Plagg visited the cheese plates, and both Adrien and Marinette found things to eat- and there were a _few_ people who were decent enough company to talk to. Mr. Agreste finally worked his way over to greet them, though it turned out to be because he wanted to show them off to a few investors. They managed to exchange a few pleasantries, and Adrien was struck once again by how stilted and unnatural his conversations with his father were compared to his conversations with Marinette's parents. If they were talking with Tom instead of Gabriel, they would have already exchanged at least a couple puns.

His father didn't pun in front of investors. He also didn't pun when they were having family dinner at the mansion. Adrien had had more enjoyable job interviews.

That actually wasn't an exaggeration, which was pretty sad.

It wasn't long before Mr. Agreste moved on, stepping away with his eyes on another potential customer that he clearly wanted to set up an appointment with. Before he went, though, he gave a once-over of Marinette's outfit. Adrien tensed up for a moment, wondering if his father had _somehow_ picked up on her teensy-tiny baby bump, but that wasn't the case.

"I would like to remind you that, for future events, ladies should be wearing at least a _short_ heel," Mr. Agreste told Marinette stiffly, gesturing to her feet. "Particularly short ladies. Flats should be left for informal events."

And then he turned and left.

"Adrien, will you be mad at me if I strangle your father?" Marinette asked after a second of shocked silence had passed. "Or whack him over the head with my oh-so-unfashionable flats?"

"Only because you'd be exerting yourself without Tikki's protection," Adrien assured her. "Otherwise, I would tell you to go for it."

Marinette laughed. "I bet I could take him down with one hit. It wouldn't be exertion at all."

Adrien tried and failed to not smile at that.

Nathalie managed to catch them right as they headed towards the door to leave. She looked a bit hassled, though she managed a smile for them.

"He's going to end up putting himself back at the same level of stress," Nathalie told them. "Which I've told him, but he's convinced that he's fine. I've scheduled regular doctor's appointments, though, just to be safe. And several screenings that his regular doctor recommended."

Adrien nodded, a whisper of worry in his stomach. His father was going to work himself into an early grave, he really was. There was only so much that Nathalie could do to help.

"Make sure that you aren't overworking yourself," Marinette told Nathalie. "Surely you could use some help, too, to back off on the workload."

"I hired two helpers while Gabriel was on holiday," Nathalie assured them. "And set limits on how late I'm willing to work on normal workdays, blocked off weekends for myself, and made a resolution to actually _use_ all of the vacation time that I'm given every year."

Adrien nodded. _That_ was good. He didn't want to lose Nathalie to overworking.

"But enough about that- how are _you?_" Nathalie asked Marinette. She glanced downwards. "You don't- excuse my observation- you don't _look_ eight months along."

"There's a combination of factors keeping my bump in," Marinette said cheerfully. "But Emma is the right size and is doing well, so we're not worried about it."

"I certainly wasn't judging- I know _plenty_ of women who wish they could have been that small when they were as far along as you, Adrien's mother included." Nathalie smiled. "And I don't think anyone noticed tonight, which is nice. I'm sure it's great to not have strangers cooing over your stomach."

"My mom once punched someone who wouldn't get out of her personal bubble when she was pregnant with me," Adrien told Marinette. "She broke their nose, I'm pretty sure. I think it made headlines. Father wasn't pleased."

"He's never pleased, though, really."

Adrien tried his best not to laugh at that. On his other side, he could see Nathalie fighting with a smirk.

"I'll let you two go, since I'm sure you're tired," Nathalie said once she had sufficiently composed herself. "And I'll let you know if any openings for dinner come up. Your father has already filled up all of his lunches and dinners for this week with appointments, against my advice," she told Adrien. "There should still be openings for next week, once things die down a bit. You'll be at- what?"

"I'm at eight months and one week now, and eight month-two by next weekend," Marinette told her. She was frowning. "I'd be worried about how long telling Mr. Agreste has been put off if he wasn't literally doing this to himself."

"I'd say that after this, you'll get a good four to five years of him never canceling a dinner on you again," Nathalie said. A small smile slid onto her face. "I personally can't wait to see his reaction. Promise me that you'll make sure that I'm in the room when you tell him."

"I think we can manage that much." Adrien grinned at Nathalie. She had never seemed this devious when he was younger. "As long as you don't decide to leave the city on whatever night we _finally_ manage to pin my father down for dinner_._"

"I never leave Paris, you know that." Nathalie glanced back through the crowd. Mr. Agreste was gesturing to her, looking irritated that she wasn't right by his side. "I have to go. Good night, you two."

"Goodnight, Nathalie."

* * *

As Nathalie had expected, week eight months, two weeks didn't even get as far as having a dinner scheduled. Apparently investors and potential clients came before family, so Mr. Agreste was kept in the dark for one week longer.

At least none of the tabloids had picked up Marinette's pregnancy. It was probably a combination of two main factors- the fact that Adrien hadn't modeled seriously for years (he made exceptions for Marinette's designs, of course) meant that the tabloids really weren't that interested in him anymore, and then Marinette's small baby bump was easily hidden under a loose sweater or dress. They hadn't really been in the public eye that much, either, largely not going to any high-profile events.

The week after that- eight months, three weeks- came with a canceled dinner. Nathalie sounded exasperated as she delivered the news.

"That really is ridiculous," Marinette said after Adrien had thanked Nathalie and hung up. "And after he made such a fuss about wanting you to live in Paris instead of London! He sees you about as much as he would if we were in London."

"It's all about knowing that he _could_ visit easily if he wanted to." Adrien made a face at his phone. "Just like how he wanted me to live at home, but then never ate dinner with me, and never dropped in to chat when I was back from London. He just wants to know that he would have the _option_." He sighed, wishing that his mom was still around. _She_ would have _way_ better about spending time with them. But there was no point on lingering on what-ifs and what-could-have-beens. "D'you wanna call up Nino and Alya and see if they want to go out for dinner? My father isn't the only one who gets to have dinner plans."

"Oh, I like that." Marinette perked up, nearly upsetting Masha and Sasha, who were competing for her lap space. "Alya's been swearing up and down that her bump is easily twice as big as mine now, and I want to see."

"I'll call them up right away," Adrien promised. "And even if they can't come out, we can go out. It would be nice to have one more date night before Emma comes."

As it turned out, Alya and Nino were free and 100% willing to head out to a casual restaurant for dinner with them. They hadn't gotten to hang out for a couple weeks, since Alya was still working and also had family visiting from out of town, and baby shopping had taken up all of the time _not_ occupied by that.

And as it turned out, Alya was 100% correct about her baby bump being twice as big as Marinette's. In fact, _twice_ as big was a bit of an understatement.

"Yeah, you're definitely showing," Marinette said with a laugh as they all got settled around the table and accepted their menus from the waitress. "See, that's why I couldn't believe it when the doctor told me that I was already at four and a half months, because _that's_ what I think of when I think of _five months along_."

"I wish I could just stop at this size," Alya admitted. "It's _quite_ big enough, thanks. Big enough to let people know that I'm pregnant, not just gaining weight, but not quite at balloon stage." She grinned. "But all this pregnancy talk- have you looked at the Ladyblog lately?"

Adrien and Marinette both blinked at that. "Uh, no?"

"Yeah, a lot of people haven't been, but I've been getting submissions and-look!" Alya pulled out her phone, pulling up the Ladyblog with a few practiced taps. "I mean, I always get photos, because people know that I'll publish them and they like having an audience. But I noticed something last night, so I did a bit of digging!"

Adrien and Marinette exchanged a nervous look. They didn't know where Alya was going with this, and considering that it was technically _them_ that she was talking about, that wasn't comforting.

"Look!" Alya announced, shoving her phone at them once the Ladyblog had loaded. "There's one photo of Ladybug from last year, then one from two-ish months ago, and last month, and this month, and last night- and do you see that?"

"You mean, do we see the bright red circle that you've drawn around Ladybug's stomach?" Adrien asked dryly. "Yeah, it's kind of hard to miss."

"No, not that- the _baby bump!_" Alya exclaimed. "It's still small- just based off of my bump, I'm thinking she's at three months at most, probably- but it's _definitely_ there. That skin-tight supersuit doesn't hide _anything_."

Adrien hid his smile. Oh, Alya was _so_ far off. That was probably a good thing, actually- other people would probably assume the same, and as long as Marinette didn't go out as Ladybug for a couple months after Emma was born, people would keep that assumption.

Or if she went out, but there was some way to pad the suit to make it look as though she was still pregnant. That might not be a good idea, though, since there were bound to be people who would think that Ladybug shouldn't still be exercising as a superhero when she was pregnant.

(Which was _dumb_, of course, since both Tikki and their doctor were fine with the exercise (though the OBGYN admittedly didn't know about the magical part of it), but since when did that ever stop anyone from judging?)

"So if I'm right with how pregnant she is, Ladybug'll probably be giving birth a couple months after me! Just think, Emma and Elodie might end up being in the same class as Ladybug and Chat Noir's kid!" Alya was practically bouncing in her seat. "It's so cool that she and Chat Noir are hitting the same milestones as we are! I wonder if they'll dress their kid up in the Ladybug and Chat Noir baby clothes. I mean, on one had that could be a _super_ obvious giveaway, but on the other hand _everyone_ in Paris does that, so maybe not?"

"If their family and friends know- which they have to, right?- then what harm would it do?" Nino countered. "No one on the street is going to think anything of it. Though I _do_ wonder how many amateur sleuths are going to be trying to look up who got married after Ladybug and Chat Noir announced their engagement, and then at which of those couples is going to have a kid."

Adrien and Marinette exchanged a look. They had timed the release of their superhero engagement photo so that people would by and large count out their wedding as a possibility, and it seemed to have worked. Then with a little help- once again, Adrien would have to ask Tikki about potentially padding the suit so Marinette could go out and still look pregnant after she gave birth- they could use the news of their superhero pregnancy to throw people off of their trail.

"Anyway, we've been discussing this ever since Alya noticed the bump in the photos," Nino added to Adrien and Marinette. "She's excited, I'm not sure if you could tell?"

They all laughed at that.

"I just think that it's cool, that's all," Alya defended herself. "Like, I thought that we would never even know 'cause she would stop going out for a bit. Or maybe that would be just as obvious, if Chat Noir was still going out. But we haven't gotten any _new_ news about them for _ages_, so all I've been posting is old footage that people submitted and patrol photos, plus any new things that I've been sent about the old superheroes. It's not much, really, not when I used to be posting things every other day."

"Well, that's to be expected, since Hawkmoth is gone," Marinette pointed out. Adrien watched as her hand rested protectively on her baby bump. He knew that she was a little self-conscious about it, since she hadn't really gotten used to people really seeing it and commenting on it- well, besides the people that they had _told_, that was. Finding out that people had noticed that _Ladybug_ was pregnant had come as a surprise.

Adrien hoped that the news wouldn't stop Marinette from wanting to go out as Ladybug again. They enjoyed their exercise time together, and it was a good way to spend a clear evening when they didn't have company over.

"And it's a good thing too, because trying to balance a full-time job _and_ full-time Ladyblogging _and_ a new baby would be really hard," Nino added. "And I'm sure Ladybug and Chat Noir appreciate being able to sit back and enjoy their evenings instead of having to be called out to save the city."

"Anyway, on the whole _baby_ theme- your Nonna is in town now, right?" Alya asked Marinette. "Since Emma could come early?"

Marinette nodded. "Yeah, she arrived- three days ago, I think? She's been meeting up with some old friends and exploring the city so she isn't underfoot at the bakery. I met up with her for lunch yesterday and let me tell you, she is about ready to deck Adrien's father. She thinks that I should be able to wear maternity fashion that would actually show off what bump I _do_ have, and that the worry about tabloids is what is keeping me from doing that. But I don't know if I would necessarily want to wear super form-fitted stuff out and about even if I _could_."

Alya looked surprised. "Really? But I'm sure you could find some _super_ cute pregnancy outfits. And you would rock them, honestly."

"I wouldn't want strangers coming up and commenting about '_oh! A baby!'_ or trying to talk about me being pregnant or- or _any_ of the stuff that I've heard about," Marinette said, shrugging. "You've talked about it before, with how annoying it is to have people doing commentary on your pregnancy. And I just don't want to have to deal with that. Besides, loose clothes are comfortable."

Nino made a face. "Okay, fair enough."

"Yeah, I nearly decked a lady a week ago when she was asking if I was planning on bottle- or breast-feeding," Alya said. She made a face. "Like, who are you, lady? Mind your own business."

Adrien grinned. "Marinette was considering whacking my father over the head with her shoe when he criticized her for wearing flats at the gala. Is the urge to hit people a pregnant people thing, or…?"

"The urge to hit your father is a normal person thing," Nino corrected Adrien, who was dodging playful whacks from Marinette. "And the urge to hit nosy people is probably the same."

"I know, I know, I wanted to whack my father myself, I was just joking!" Adrien yelped. He sat up with a grin once Marinette finally let up. "And speaking of which- do you want me to _really_ rub that comment of his in once we tell him? Just to make sure he knows how much of a jerk he's been?"

Marinette's smirk was vicious. "Only if I don't rub it in first."

Nino just shook his head, bemused. "I don't understand how your father dares to cancel stuff on you guys. I would be terrified to cross you two. Particularly when Mari's smirking like that."

Their waiter came back to get their order then, and conversation wandered onto what maternity leave was like for Marinette so far (filled with a fair bit of jittering around when she wasn't resting or making sure that everything was as ready as it could be) and what each couple had left to do (not much for Adrien and Marinette, but Nino and Alya still had some stocking up to do).

"My office is turning into Elodie's nursery," Alya told them. "Which is fine, now that my book has gone to print. My stuff is going to stay in there for the time being, though. It's not like it takes up that much room, now that everything is sorted and put away."

"We had to move a chunk of Marinette's sewing room into our bedroom," Adrien said. He grinned at Marinette. "That _does_ take up a bit of the room. But we'll manage."

"As long as I'm not trying to make twenty leather warrior outfits again, I shouldn't take up _too_ much space," Marinette said with a laugh. "And I've mostly been getting screen-printing orders on commissions recently, since I put up a note on my site that said that I was pretty busy and only wanted smaller projects. That barely takes up any space at all, since I just do the designs on my tablet and then-"

"And then have to fill up your entire living room with clothesline to hang pieces up to dry?" Alya chimed in, looking dubious. "I remember how much space that takes, Mari. Don't act like it's just a tiny side project."

"I outsource the printing part of most of my screen-printing orders now," Marinette told her friend. "I have a professional silkscreen printer doing the _printing_ bit on those pieces, and I just come up with the design. It's faster and more cost-effective. _And_ space-effective."

"And 'fewer chemical smells in our apartment'-effective" Adrien added with a laugh. "Which we all appreciate."

"I can do slightly more complex designs with a pro printer, too," Marinette added. "They cost more, of course, but they cost _me_ more to make at home, too, and there was no guarantee that I would get it right. And I get a discount at the printer, since I'm such a regular customer."

"And then you get to keep all of the printing mess out of your house. Good idea." Alya nodded appreciatively. "...when did you start doing that?"

"Last year, I think. Or is it closer to two years now?" Marinette tipped her head to the side, considering. "I don't remember. I had been considering it for a bit before I switched, and shopping around for someone who would be good to work with long-term took a couple months. I just thought it might be a good idea because I _really_ enjoy the designing part, but not the actual screen-making and printing part so much."

"And stuff was taking up so much space of our storage," Adrien added. "And it was taking up her evenings when Marinette had an order to do."

"You mean it was stinking up the place while you were home."

Adrien grinned and shrugged. "Yeah, well, even if you _did_ try to do as much as possible outside, some smell still ended up in here."

"So _anyway_, my projects at home don't take up that much space right now," Marinette said loudly, ignoring Adrien's grin. "And they're very portable. So having half of my stuff in our bedroom and half in Emma's room should work until we get our three-bedroom apartment, however long that takes."

"Right, of course." Nino glanced up and hastily gestured to clear the table, just as their waiter arrived with their pizzas. They accepted their water refills, then eagerly dug in.

"So," Alya said as she loaded her plate. "So you have just about one week left, right? Are you excited?"

Marinette laughed. "Excited, nervous, occasionally terrified in case we mess up or somehow missed getting something important. It varies, really." Reaching over, she squeezed Adrien's hand. "I know it'll be all right, though. No matter what happens, I know that Adrien and I can handle it together."


	5. Chapter 5

_The chapter that had Google thinking that I was in labor/with someone in labor because I obviously had to figure out how long labor usually is #woohoo research_

* * *

Nine months, two days. Marinette felt her first contraction early in the morning and spent most of the day alternating between pacing and attempting to watch a movie with Adrien, trying to keep her mind off of things until it was time to go to the hospital.

They still hadn't told Mr. Agreste that she was pregnant. They had had a dinner scheduled with him that later in the evening and he had yet to call it off (in large part thanks to Nathalie's efforts), but-

"No, we can go!"

Adrien groaned as he looked at his stubborn wife, who had gotten dressed for dinner instead of _resting_ like she needed to be doing. She had kept moving throughout the day, even as the contractions slowly got longer and closer together. "Lovebug, you're going to need to go to the hospital soon."

"I can manage ten minutes of dinner first!" Marinette insisted. "Then we can tell him, and then we can get out of there!

Adrien buried his face in his hands and groaned louder.

"You _know_ that it'll probably be hours yet before Emma comes," Marinette continued, and Adrien knew there was no talking her out of it. "I'm still in early labor!"

"Only just _barely_," Adrien pointed out, but it wasn't a protest any more. They had been married long enough- and Adrien had known Marinette for long enough- to know when he just needed to go along with Marinette's plans and try to make it work the best he could "We're going to have to time it right so that we go in right after a contraction winds up, though, unless we want to tip my father off right away."

"As long as I don't have to do any talking, I can probably hide the contractions well enough that your father won't notice right off the bat," Marinette told him. "He doesn't pay _that_ much attention to us, so we can probably get away with it."

Adrien cringed. She was right. Unless they were talking about something that his father was interested in, he usually was distracted. They could _totally_ get away with it. They had time. It would be fine. They just had to be _quick_ about it.

And then the Gorilla got delayed in traffic on his way to pick them up, and the elevator took _forever_ to come once he arrived. They had to maneuver their way around a group blocking the door, and _finally_ they were in the car and on their way over, over an hour after they had planned to leave initially.

Marinette's contractions were coming just under five minutes apart. The Gorilla gave her a concerned look as Adrien helped her into the car.

"She's in labor," Adrien helpfully explained as he got in, settling their hospital bag at his feet. "But we thought we might as well tell Father that she's pregnant first."

To his credit, the Gorilla only sighed and turned his attention back to the road to look for an opening so that he could pull out. He had seen enough that it didn't even faze him, which was pretty impressive.

Or, as Adrien figured out several minutes later, the Gorilla had thought that they meant _early_ early labor, as in only just starting out or an hour in. His glances in the rearview mirror got progressively more stressed out as Marinette went through another round of contractions, then another as they worked their way towards the mansion, weaving through the slowly disintegrating traffic jam.

"Marinette, that was three minutes," Adrien said, frowning as he checked his watch. "As was the last one, and they're lasting for a minute each. We _really_ need to go to the hospital."

"We haven't told your father, though," Marinette gritted out, clearly no longer able to hide her contraction. "And we're nearly there-"

"With this traffic, I don't think we can spare ten minutes to play family dinner with my father," Adrien pointed out. "_Mari_. Please."

Marinette stayed quiet for a minute, clearly breathing through the contraction. "If we don't stay for dinner- maybe just stick our heads in-"

"Can I just stick _my_ head in?" Adrien pleaded. "Marinette. If you get out, you'll have to get back in the car. It'll take more time. And it's winter, the steps might be slippery."

The Gorilla glanced in the rearview mirror, looking worried. He looked back at the road a moment, later, finally making the turn onto the street running past the mansion. Twenty seconds later, he was pulling through the gates.

"Yeah, that might be a good idea," Marinette finally admitted. "If there hadn't been traffic, we could have made it, though. And it would have been hilarious."

"It would have," Adrien agreed, though he _really_ didn't care about that anymore. At this point, his father's avoidance of their attempts to tell him the news could be putting Marinette and Emma in danger. "But we _gotta_ get you to the hospital."

As soon as they were through the gates, the Gorilla turned the car around to face out the gates. The second that the car drew to a stop, Adrien threw himself out of the car, dashing up the steps.

"Uh, Adrien?" Plagg asked politely, tapping at his shoulder. "Is this a good time to mention that Miraculous holders tend to have faster labors compared to the normal human?"

Adrien sped up. Oh, _gosh_. He didn't want Marinette to end up delivering Emma in the car.

Why couldn't traffic have been _normal_, just this once?

* * *

Gabriel got the news that traffic was horrible and dinner would be delayed shortly after Gerald headed out. He went back to work, since there was no point in wasting time just because a couple people didn't know how to drive and had ended up in accidents and slowed down the entire city. He was in the middle of cleaning up a sketch of a formal gown when the front doors banged open.

He frowned, glancing up. That had to be Adrien. He would have to speak to his son about proper behavior in the mansion- slamming doors was _not_ appropriate, and-

"MARINETTE NEEDS TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL RIGHT NOW SO WE CAN'T MAKE DINNER SORRY BYE!"

The door slammed shut again just as fast, and Gabriel blinked. Had Adrien just said that they were going to the _hospital?_

Nathalie came into the office, looking somewhat perturbed. "Adrien and Marinette won't be able to make dinner, sir."

"Yes, I heard." Gabriel got up, frowning. "Marinette is going to the hospital. I hope that the roads clear up quickly for them. I'd hope that it isn't serious, but Adrien seemed in _quite_ a hurry."

Nathalie seemed about to say something, then stopped. "I'll keep in contact with Adrien, sir."

"Thank you." Gabriel got up, something like concern churning in his stomach. Just considering how he had treated the entry door, Adrien was a bit frantic at the moment. That could easily mean that whatever Marinette was going to the hospital for was serious, which- well. _Serious_ could come in a variety of forms, from simply causing a temporary (but serious) blip to life-altering to deadly.

He could only hope that Adrien wouldn't have to go through the pain of losing his wife like Gabriel had.

* * *

"I didn't see Father in the entry hall, so I just yelled that we were going to the hospital and left," Adrien told Marinette breathlessly as he vaulted back into the car. As soon as his door was shut, the Gorilla shifted the car into drive and peeled back out the gates. "I didn't want to have to wait for him to finish up whatever file he deemed more important than greeting us."

Marinette laughed, though there was still a grimace on her face. "Emma's actually going to be born before he finds out."

"Yeah, well." Adrien couldn't find it in himself to care. Instead, he pulled out his phone. "I'm going to call your parents and then Nino and Alya. They're going to want to be nearby."

"Okay." Marinette winced as the contraction got worse. "Oh, _gosh_. I hope we make it in time."

"Hold on, Princess." Adrien gave Marinette's hand a gentle squeeze as he hit _call_ and held his cell phone up to his ear. It didn't take long for Sabine to pick up. "Hello? This is Adrien. We're headed to the hospital now- d'you think you can meet us there?"

* * *

They managed to get to the hospital with a little time to spare. The Gorilla looked relieved as they pulled up to the curb and an swarm of nurses instantly descended on them to take Marinette inside.

"Thank you," Adrien told him as he snagged their hospital bag and hopped out of the car before the nurses could get _too_ far. "We _really_ appreciate it."

The Gorilla just nodded and waved him off. Adrien waved his thanks again before dashing after Marinette.

He was going to get the Gorilla the _best_ gift after all this. Trying to navigate the Paris traffic with a heavily in-labor woman in the backseat had to have been _hugely_ stressful. It had been stressful for _Adrien_, and he hadn't even been the one driving.

The next few minutes were a flurry of activity, answering a whole slew of questions (_name of patient, name of your OBGYN, how far along are you, when did the contractions start, how long and how far apart are they now-) and _getting Marinette checked in and settled in a room. It seemed like barely any time had passed, and then Sabine was hurrying into the room.

"I figured that you might want Tom and Gina outside," she told Marinette. "And Alya and Nino are on their way too, but too many people in the delivery room gets overwhelming. I put them in charge of keeping your other friends in the loop. I don't know how up to visitors you'll be tonight, but just let them know."

Marinette nodded, clearly not wanting to speak. Her grip on Adrien's hand had gotten tighter. It hurt, but Adrien wasn't going to say anything about it. She was in even more pain, after all, and the most he could do was to be there for her.

"Is your father coming?" Sabine asked Adrien as they waited for the doctor to inspect Marinette and see if she was ready to start pushing. "He's bound to be at least a little excited, right?"

"He, ah." Adrien exchanged a look with Marinette. "He doesn't know yet."

Sabine spluttered at that. "He- _Adrien!_"

"He insisted that we share any big news with him face-to-face, but he made himself completely inaccessible for _months_,like we've been telling you," Adrien pointed out. "We tried and tried, but he rescheduled dinners and cancelled them, then took off for two months without letting us have a dinner together, and then he's been _busy_ ever since he got back. We _were_ supposed to have a dinner tonight, but…"

"We didn't quite make it," Marinette chimed in, hand relaxing in Adrien's. Apparently her contraction had passed. "We _were_ going to break the news to him and then rush to the hospital, but there was traffic. And then I _really_ had to rush over here."

Sabine sighed.

"Maybe he'll actually stop canceling dinners on us now, though," Adrien said. "That's what Nathalie thinks, at least. Or he'll tell us to just text him next time. It could go either way, really."

"Besides, I don't- _oh!_" Marinette's voice cut of mid-sentence and she clutched Adrien's hand again. "_Ow_."

"Focus on your breathing, sweetheart," Sabine told Marinette, brushing her sweaty hair off of her brow. "You'll get through this soon enough, and then you'll have Emma in your arms. Just a little longer. It'll be worth it, I promise."

Marinette could only nod.

* * *

It was relatively late when Nathalie got the text from Adrien telling her that they were ready for visitors and giving her Marinette's room number. Nathalie went and fetched Gabriel at once, and they hopped into the waiting car.

At least traffic had cleared up, and they whizzed along on their way to the hospital. Gabriel was still impatient, frowning at his own cell phone.

"If she's ready for visitors, she's got to be out of the danger zone, right?" Gabriel asked, though who the question was aimed at she didn't know. "Maybe it wasn't as serious as Adrien thought."

Nathalie resisted the urge to roll her eyes. If Gabriel had managed to attend _one_ dinner with Adrien and Marinette, he would have known what was going on. If he had paid _any_ attention and noted that it was strange for the two of them to be so insistent about meeting up with him when they normally let it go and had _done_ something about it, he would probably already be at the hospital, maybe already getting to see Emma.

Marinette's family had probably been there the entire time, being excited for them.

It wasn't long before they were pulling up at the visitor drop-off in front of the hospital, and then Nathalie led the way inside. Gabriel was alternating between fretting and being annoyed about being kept out of the loop.

He would be back in the loop soon enough. They were headed away from the emergency room and all of the associated wards, and right towards the maternity ward. Any second now, Gabriel would notice-

Or not. Apparently Nathalie had underestimated how oblivious Gabriel could be.

It wasn't hard to figure out where Marinette's room was. There was a (admittedly muted) buzz coming from the small crowd outside of the door, a handful of Adrien and Marinette's friends chatting as they got ready to leave. Nathalie could see Adrien among them, presumably thanking people for coming. He perked up and waved when he saw Nathalie and Gabriel.

"How is Marinette doing?" Nathalie asked as they drew close. The last of the lingering group said their hasty good-byes and started heading out. "And the baby?"

"Wait- the _baby_?" Gabriel demanded, and the look on his face was something that Nathalie would treasure _forever_. She hadn't seen him look so gobsmacked since- well, when Adrien had told his father that he was engaged. She heard a snigger from the leaving group and faintly registered a pink-haired woman- their friend Alix, she remembered- pulling out her phone to snap a few pictures of Gabriel's dropped jaw. "Nathalie, is Marinette _pregnant?_

"Well, she's given birth now," Nathalie pointed out helpfully, doing her best to keep a professional expression in place. She was going to have to duck away at some point before she let on how amusing she was finding this, she just knew it. The look on Gabriel's face was just too _funny_. Clearly he hadn't been expecting to hear that news and he looked like he could get knocked over by a feather. "She must have been pretty heavily in labor when she was rushed over. But yes, she was pregnant."

"No one told me _anything!_"

There were a few hastily-muffled splutters of laughter from Adrien's friends- friends who had paused their exit to watch the show, apparently. Nathalie couldn't blame them.

"To be fair, sir, you _did_ tell them _many_ times that they had to tell you any news face-to-face," Nathalie reminded Gabriel, who was still clearly in shock. "And you were either too busy to meet with them face-to-face or out of the country."

Gabriel spluttered, then scowled- at Nathalie, her words, or the clearly amused young adults behind her, Nathalie wasn't sure. "I didn't necessarily _mean_ in person. A phone call would have sufficed. Or Facetime. We _did_ Facetime, in fact, they could have told me then, or-_no!_" Gabriel suddenly exclaimed, pointing at her and then at Adrien's friends. "No, I know what you're doing and I _won't_ fall for it again! I _just_ saw Marinette three weeks ago at the _Gabriel_ gala and she _certainly_ wasn't pregnant then. You're trying to prank me again and I will _not_ fall for it. I _refuse_."

With that, he turned and stormed off down the hallway, away from Marinette's room. A nurse that had been headed up the hallway jumped out of his way before staring after him, clearly bemused.

There was a long pause as the whole group watched him leave.

"Okay, I wasn't expecting _that_ reaction," Adrien said after a moment. "And the best part is that it's not a prank. Uh, Nathalie-"

"I'll go get him. You stay here."

It didn't take very long to catch up to a clearly stormy Mr. Agreste, but it _did_ take a while to persuade him to come back and see Marinette. He side-eyed her the entire way, muttering something about how she would be _so_ fired if this was a prank.

Nathalie chose to ignore him. After all, she _had_ seen Marinette's baby bump, as small as it was, and Adrien had shown off the sonograms of baby Emma like the proud father-to-be that he was. She knew that it wasn't a prank.

"If this is a prank, you're disowned," Gabriel announced as soon as they were within hearing distance of Adrien. The still-lingering group around Adrien turned to look at them. "Because this is _not_ funny."

Nathalie decided not to comment on that. Instead, she turned her attention back to a very clearly amused Adrien. "As I was saying- how is Marinette doing?"

"Tired, but she's feeling good." Adrien was grinning. "I think we're going to need a crowbar to get Tom and Sabine to go home, though. They love Emma already."

"Will we be able to go in if they're there?" Nathalie wanted to know. She knew that there were limits on the number of visitors in a new mother's room, and for good reason. Frankly, she was surprised that so many of Adrien and Marinette's Paris friends had already visited. "I mean…"

"It's fine. Visiting hours are almost done, anyway. I don't think they would waive that if it were the middle of the day." Adrien waved his father forward. "I think both she and Emma are going to crash as soon as everyone is gone, though."

Gabriel headed in right away, an irritated and not particularly convinced look on his face, but Nathalie held back. Adrien's friends looked nervous for a moment as she approached them, but Nathalie directed her attention towards Alix, who had been taking the pictures of Gabriel when he (finally) found out about Marinette's pregnancy. "Could you send me a copy of those photos you took? I can give you my email address."

Jaws dropped all around the group.

"I- I mean, sure?" Alix managed. Then she sent Nathalie a sharp look. "You're enjoying this as much as we are, aren't you?"

"I may have encouraged it slightly and much enjoyed seeing the end result." Nathalie pulled a business card out of her purse and passed it over. "Thank you."

She was going to hang that photo on her fridge at home.

"I took a video, if you want me to send you a copy," a silver-haired woman wearing a motorcycle jacket offered. She waved her video camera, and it took Nathalie a moment to recognize her as Marinette's grandma. "Adrien and Marinette-a told me about what happened and so I wanted to be ready. Marinette was so put out that she didn't get to see Mr. Agreste's reaction that I just had to record it."

Nathalie failed to hide her grin this time as she handed over another business card before heading inside Marinette's room.

"Surprise, indeed," Gabriel was saying as Nathalie came in. His expression was rather flat. "I have to say, that was a rather, ah, _unconventional_ way of breaking the news."

"It wasn't via tabloid, at least," Adrien pointed out as he settled down at Marinette's side and leaned over to press a quick kiss to her forehead. The proud grin still hadn't left his face. "We managed to avoid that. It helped that it was winter for that last bit and sweaters hide a lot. That, and the bump never really got that big. It was easily hidden in a loose dress."

"I see." Gabriel headed over to look at Emma, and Nathalie wasn't far behind. She looked down at Emma and… well, she looked like most newborn babies, honestly. Wrinkly and pink and small, with a shock of black hair decorating the top of her head. "She looks like she'll take after Marinette."

"Isn't she adorable?" Adrien beamed down at his daughter. "Maybe the blond will win out with our next kid, but either way is good."

"It helps that my side of the family had a decent number of blonds," Tom chimed in. "Otherwise I think Adrien's genes might get overpowered."

Adrien just beamed, clearly not minding that at all. Nathalie wasn't surprised, considering how much he absolutely _adored_ Marinette.

Their visit wasn't long at all, and then a nurse was ushering them out. Nathalie made sure to congratulate Tom and Sabine on their first grandchild before Gabriel headed off to head back home, a slightly irritated look settling back on his face now that they were out of Marinette and Adrien's sight.

Ah, well. Gabriel would no doubt be irritated with her for keeping the secret for a while, but it was all worth it. Nathalie was going to be treasuring that flabbergasted look on Gabriel's face for _years_ to come.

* * *

A day and a half later, Adrien and Marinette returned home with Emma in tow. The boost of Miraculous healing magic that Marinette got from being Ladybug had helped a lot, and even the doctors had seemed a little startled by how soon Marinette was ready to get up and go home.

"Home sweet home," Marinette sighed as Adrien unlocked their apartment door. "It'll be nice to not have nurses coming in to pester me all the ti- Masha!"

As soon as the door had opened, Masha had dashed out. She wound herself around Marinette's legs, then reared up to place her front paws on Marinette's thigh and peer into the baby carrier. She meowed loudly, then tried to stick her face in the carrier. Marinette hurried to set it down before Masha could accidentally upset it. The cat immediately started sniffing at Emma, purring as she did.

"Auntie Masha, already getting to know Emma," Adrien joked, trying to nudge Emma's carrier in the door so that they could get in the apartment. "C'mon, Masha, let us in- oh, here comes Sasha!"

"You get the cats, and I'll carry Emma in," Marinette suggested. "Then they can investigate. Maybe I'll hold her, just to make sure that they don't overwhelm her."

Adrien nodded, crouching down to scoop up one cat under each arm. They both meowed in protest, but it didn't take much time at all to get into the apartment and get the door closed behind them. He let the cats down as Marinette sat down on the couch, pulling Emma out of the baby carrier and settling down with her. It wasn't long at all before Masha was up next to Marinette, sniffing carefully at Emma. Sasha had been distracted by a treat in the kitchen, so Adrien settled down on Marinette's other side.

"I'm glad the cats seem to like Emma," Adrien commented. He grinned as Emma's flailing hands nudged into Masha's head, and their cat patiently nosed at the tiny hands. "And I'm glad that we took Tikki's advice and got that thing to go over the top of the crib. Considering how clingy Masha was when I was pregnant, I wouldn't be surprised if she tried to get into the crib. And Emma is _far_ too young for that."

"She seems to like Masha, though." Adrien grinned at his two girls as Emma let out a gurgly giggle at Masha's nuzzle. "We won't need to get a babysitter at all if we go out."

"If you can train Masha to change a diaper, _then_ I'll consider leaving her with Emma," Marinette said with a laugh. "Besides, I think my parents have called dibs on babysitting, as long as we don't stay out _too_ late. Papa still doesn't want to leave his morning baker helpers on their own without supervision, even though he's had them for a couple years now."

"Yeah, they've mentioned that before. They've gotten more staff, haven't they? One or two?" Adrien grinned as Emma giggled at Masha again, then refocused on his lovely wife. She was smiling as she watched their baby and their older cat interact, but he could tell that she was still tired. He couldn't blame her, because that whole birthing process seemed like _really_ hard work. "I know your mom has someone else doing the counter more."

"They want to have time to experiment with recipes and also have the time to visit Emma, now that she's been born." Marinette dipped down to press a kiss to Emma's forehead. "They'll keep working, of course, but they want to not be working _quite_ such long hours every day. So yeah, more staff helps with that."

"Right, they don't ever really have a day off, do they?" Adrien held out a finger for Emma to grab at. He grinned when her flailing fist knocked against his hand instead. She was just too _cute_. "Did the bakery just close when you were born, then, or…?"

"A baker friend of the family- Papa's mentor, actually- came over to do a lot of the supervising so that Papa could help Maman." Marinette nudged Masha away when Emma started to fuss. "He was just semi-retired at the time, so he could spare the time and he was willing to do it, too. And since we live right above the bakery, it wasn't as though Papa couldn't just run back upstairs to help if he went down to the bakery to help for a bit. And- oh, I think Emma needs changing again."

"I can do it," Adrien volunteered at once, holding his arms out for Emma. "You can rest."

"I'll come watch you. I was a little too out of it in the hospital to catch everything that they were saying about how to do the changing and that is _definitely_ something that I should know how to do." Marinette handed Emma to Adrien before standing up herself. "Though I _did_ notice that they showed you how to do the changing several times."

Adrien grinned as he led the way back to Emma's room. "Yeah, I was trying to do the same thing that your dad said he did with you, with seeing how long I could get the nurses to do the changing. They caught on pretty quickly, though."

Marinette laughed. "Oh, the trick where they come around and ask if you've been taught how to change a diaper, and you play dumb? How many times did you get away with it?"

"Three, including the actual first time. Your dad said that I'm just an awful liar and that's why they caught on so early." Adrien snickered as he got Emma settled on the changing table. "He said that _he_ got away with it until the same nurses came back for their shifts the next day and they knew that they had already taught him."

"And they saw from the records that I had been born the previous day anyway, so even if they didn't specifically remember him, they knew that he _should_ have already been taught." Marinette giggled. "He's just good at playing clueless. _And _he's good at not being a good influence, clearly. He's going to be the one spoiling Emma with cookies and cake every time we visit."

"He's just excited to be a grandfather. Which is understandable, because I'm excited to be a father." Adrien beamed down at Emma. "I'll be using my full paternity leave for sure, and then maybe some vacation time after that so that you can get a decent amount of rest. We'll play it by ear for sure. I don't want you feeling like you're doing things on your own."

Marinette beamed up at him. "I know, and I appreciate it so, _so_ much. Things might be hard at first, and I'm sure we'll have some days that are tough, but I know we can handle this together."

"Together," Adrien agreed. He held up a fist, and he and Marinette bumped fists in their signature superhero move. "Now let's get Emma changed, and then maybe we can sneak a nap in before we start getting visitors again."


	6. Chapter 6

_One year and some-odd months later..._

"Masha, if you're going to be right next to Emma, of _course_ she's going to try to use you for support, you silly cat!"

"She can't understand you, Marinette," Tikki said with a laugh. "But yes, Masha should have figured that out by now. It's not like this is Emma's first attempt at walking. _Or_ her first time using Masha for support, even."

"Sasha is looking _much_ smarter right now," Adrien said, pointing to where their younger cat was curled up and watching the scene down below from the safety of a stack of boxes. Or maybe she was just taking a nap, it was hard to tell. "Out of reach of the grabby hands."

"Eventually Masha is going to be there too, I bet." Marinette kneeled down on the carpet, watching Emma trying to balance herself on the furniture (and their older cat) before taking a shaky step forward. "Masha, you're just getting in the way now."

"A cat getting underfoot? You don't say." Adrien grinned, then hopped to his feet at the knock on the door, making sure to give the trio on the floor a wide berth. "Your parents are here!"

"Oh, good." Marinette glanced up as Adrien answered the door, letting Tom and Sabine in. "Emma! Look who's here!"

Emma looked up and lit up at once, falling to her hands and knees so that she could crawl over faster. "Nana! Papi!"

Sabine grinned, handing a large pot to Adrien so that she could bend down and scoop Emma up. "Hi, Emma! How's my little granddaughter doing today?"

"She's working on walking again," Marinette told her mom, pushing herself up. "She's almost got it, I think."

"She'll pick it up soon enough, and then you'll never be able to contain her." Sabine beamed down at Emma as she held her tight. "And then comes the climbing, and then nothing is safe."

Adrien laughed. "Yeah, you've told us before. We're trying to baby-proof as we unpack, but it's hard."

"Yes, well, that's why we came over today, isn't it?" Tom grinned down at Emma, then returned his attention to Adrien and Marinette. "I see that you've gotten some stuff unpacked already."

"Just the furniture, really. And a couple pots and pans." Adrien headed into the kitchen to set the pot down, then returned to the front room to take the bag that Tom was carrying. "I'm glad we got a company to help us with the move. We would have been spinning in circles if we had tried to move everything ourselves. Do you want a tour first?"

Tom and Sabine agreed eagerly, and so they started with the living room/dining room area. It was larger in their three-bedroom apartment than it had been in the two-bedroom, which was nice. It gave Emma more space to tumble around, and once she was joined by another sibling (whenever that happened), then there would be space for them to play together without taking up the _entire_ floor. The kitchen was larger, too, which Tom and Sabine heartily approved of.

"It's larger than ours, which will be nice for you," Sabine said, looking around. "And it's open to the living room, so you can watch Emma while you cook. I love all of the counter space."

"I can't wait to start cooking in it," Marinette admitted. "I'll be able to have things cooling on the counter and still be able to cook without bumping into them. Or Adrien and I can cook together and have plenty of space. It's probably one of the best things about this apartment."

"It's lovely," Sabine told her. "It's so nice that your landlady had these apartments as well, so that you didn't need to do a lot of searching."

Adrien could only nod in agreement. There had been hardly any work involved in getting the new apartment, really. They had told their landlady that they would be interested in a three-bedroom apartment once it opened, she had put them down on a list, and she had let them know as soon as she knew that one would be opening up. They had popped over to the next building over to tour the place and confirm that they wanted it, and then they had moved.

Well, the move itself had been a lot of work. Getting all of their things _plus_ Emma's stuff _plus_ the stuff for Masha and Sasha all packed up had been difficult. Luckily his father had helped with the move- well, Nathalie had, at least- by sending over a check for them to use to hire a moving company. It wasn't _terribly_ expensive since they were just shifting one building over, but it was still appreciated. Adrien and Marinette had been able to drop Emma off with Nino and Alya for the couple hours it took for the workers to clear their old apartment and get things into the new one, and then for the time it took for them to finish their cleaning and do a final walk-through with the landlady before turning over the old keys and getting their new ones.

"How is Emma taking the move?" Sabine asked as they headed out of the kitchen and towards the bedrooms. "I know sometimes little kids get upset when they get uprooted and moved elsewhere."

Marinette grinned. "She's doing well. It helps that we did a bunch of unpacking in her room before she came in for the first time, so it looked really familiar. And she got to pick which of the two kid's bedrooms that she wanted to be hers before we moved, though, uh, I doubt that she _knew_ that that was what she was doing."

"I'm sure there's plenty yet to unpack in there, though." Sabine followed Marinette into Emma's new room, and Tom and Adrien followed her. "Ah- yes, plenty of things."

Adrien winced. There was a pretty big pile of boxes, mostly full of toys and clothes and diapers and all of the extra supplies. They had packed a box with enough for a couple days to unpack right away, but everything else still had to get put away. "Yeah, we were working on it a bit earlier, but then Emma decided to try to walk and we didn't want to miss that. "

"You had to leave _some_ stuff for us to do, and I doubt that you want us unpacking all of your clothes." Sabine was already over at the box pile, glancing over all of the boxes. She set Emma down and then started pulling the topmost one open. "I think I know where all of this goes. Tom and I can get this room while you start on yours."

Marinette giggled. "So much for the rest of the apartment tour, then?"

"Oh! Right!"

It didn't take long for them to finish up. There were two smaller bedrooms- Emma's and Marinette's sewing room- plus a bathroom, then the master bedroom with its own bathroom and the large walk-in closet. It was large enough that Marinette would be able to easily store a lot of her sewing things in it once they needed the third bedroom for a second kid.

Not that Marinette had been sewing a _ton_ at home now, between mainly doing commissions for graphic designs for t-shirts and caring for Emma. But she would need the storage space, at least, and it would be better if the sewing machine was easily accessible when she needed it and not packed away in a box or anything.

"Your bedroom is a nice size," Tom commented, glancing around. The room was really bare so far, with only one blanket on the bed and nothing on the dresser. "It's incredible that anyone would leave once they got this place, but I suppose if they were moving out of the city or outgrew the apartment, it would make sense."

Adrien nodded in agreement. No matter how nice the apartment was, he knew that it wasn't their forever home, not yet. He and Marinette had discussed moving to a townhouse in anticipation of having more kids- they wanted three, after all, and trying to make a move with two or three young kids would no doubt be a _nightmare_\- but they hadn't seen any that they liked open just yet. Besides, townhouses in Paris weren't exactly cheap, and while he and Marinette were pretty well off- between his income as a model for over a decade of his life, her job at the boutique, his job at the Physics lab, and her commissions on the side, they certainly weren't struggling- they had agreed that they wanted to build up a little more savings before going out and buying a house.

"The timing of this place opening up ended up being pretty good, if you think about it," Sabine commented. She bounced Emma on her hip when she started to fuss, making a silly face at her. Emma settled down right away. "Think about trying to move within her first year- it would have been pretty hard, right?"

Neither Adrien nor Marinette could hide their winces at that. _Pretty hard_ was a bit of an understatement there. Their first few months with Emma had been hectic at best as they dealt with diapers and feedings and laundry- _so much laundry_\- and trying to stay on top of their normal household chores. Things had settled down as they got used to balancing it all, and as Emma's feedings grew less frequent (and she started eating baby food and then, later, soft foods, so Adrien could help out more) and the number of diaper changes she went through lessened, they actually got some of their time back. They spent most of it playing with Emma and reading to her, but if they had been trying to move then or before things settled down?

They would have been a _mess_.

"At least now Emma is old enough for daycare, so if we need more time to unpack we could always take a few days off to pack without her being underfoot," Adrien pointed out after a few seconds. "She loves it, so it's not like she would mind. Or notice that anything was different, really, considering that she goes pretty much every day."

Tom grinned. "You like her daycare, then?"

"Yeah! I don't think we ever thanked you enough for finding that one for us."

Sabine laughed. "It was no problem at all, really. We just asked people who came into the bakery with kids where they had their children go for daycare and if they had been happy with it. No real work required on our parts."

"_Still_. My father's idea of 'helping' was to tell us that we shouldn't be sending Emma to daycare and that we should get a nanny instead." Adrien rolled his eyes. "I already know that Emma would hate that. She likes seeing the other kids at daycare. And it would be _expensive_ to have a nanny." And Mr. Agreste knew that- he had to, since Adrien had had a nanny for years even though both of his parents had worked from home- but he just didn't think it was _fitting_ for his granddaughter to be going to a common daycare (never mind that the one they had found was definitely on the slightly more upscale side).

Tom made a face. "I'm sure he'll settle down eventually. Or he'll keep doing it and you'll just tune it out," he added, chuckling. "I suppose it's more likely to be the latter."

Adrien sighed. "Yeah, probably."

It didn't take long for them to dive into the unpacking. Tom and Sabine headed into Emma's room to finish unpacking and putting stuff away there, and Adrien and Marinette stayed in their own bedroom, hanging up some clothes and folding others to put away. Emma was put in her crib, where she could watch her grandparents while staying well out of the way.

"After this, I think the kitchen is the next priority for us," Adrien said as he pulled out another blanket and draped it across the bed. "We need to be able to cook. Your parents should be able to do the bathrooms."

"They could do the towels and soaps and cleaners, at least," Marinette corrected, and Adrien winced. _Right_. If they were having her parents set up the bathrooms, they should pull one of the boxes that was there right now. Her parents didn't need to know about _everything_ that they kept in the bathroom. "And we have to remember that we have two bathrooms now, too. We're going to have to buy more stuff for one of them."

Adrien nodded, thinking about it. "I vote that the stuff we have- the shower curtain and the rugs, mostly- goes in our bathroom, and then we can find some stuff that's maybe a bit more fun for Emma's bathroom. Maybe we could do, like, a tropical fish theme or something?"

"Ooh, I like that!" Marinette had paused, shirt half-folded in her hands as she went into planning mode. "And the mirror and the walls on the tub could have those little sticky gel fish on them as decoration! It would be _super_ cute."

Laughing, Adrien leaned over to kiss her. "Oh no, I've awakened the decorating beast."

"It's fun, and you know it is."

The two of them had only just finished working on clothes when Sabine stuck her head in. "We've finished working on Emma's room for the most part. All you have left are the wall decorations, and I know you like putting those up."

Adrien grinned. "You didn't want to deny Marinette the joy of decorating Emma's room?"

"Not when she enjoys it so much."

"We were just talking about what kinds of decorations we might want to buy for our second bathroom, now that we have two," Marinette told her mom. "We thought we might have a tropical fish theme in Emma's bathroom. It would be fun, and those colors are really pretty."

Sabine grinned. "Oh, she'll love that, I'm sure. It's fun, but not so childish that guests would think anything of it. Tom and I once went to a friend's apartment where they had decorated their kid's bathroom in unicorns and sparkly pink, and it was like here, where the kid's bathroom is the one that any guests use. It was cute, I guess, but..."

"Are you talking about the unicorn bathroom? It was absolutely overwhelming." Tom appeared behind Sabine, a slight grimace on his face at the memory. "I don't think I've ever felt so out of place. It was clear that it was a little girl's bathroom, and I felt like I was intruding."

"So be careful with the level of decoration is what I'm hearing," Marinette said, exchanging a look with Adrien. "Or maybe we could include a few pieces that are less strictly kid-ish."

"I don't think there are many unicorn things that scream _adult_."

Sabine laughed. "They were talking about doing a tropical fish theme, Tom. No unicorns involved."

Tom looked relieved, and they all laughed.

Emma went down for a nap while Tom and Sabine started setting up the master bathroom, and they worked for another hour before stopping for a quick snack break. Adrien grinned as he surveyed their work.

The apartment was starting to look like _home_ again. It wasn't quite there yet- there were several rooms left to unpack, and of course the books and knick-nacks and pictures wouldn't be put up until later- but stuff was out and getting put away, and more and more boxes were getting flattened and piled up by the door to be taken out. The floor was slowly appearing as boxes were removed, and Adrien could actually see more of their furniture again.

"Was the cat tree a first priority to get up again, or did you just never take it apart?" Tom asked with a laugh when they had managed to uncover it. "And- aha! I see Sasha! I had wondered where she went."

"We never took it apart," Marinette admitted. "Since Mr. Agreste was paying for the move, we figured that we might as well save ourselves a little work and leave it together. And can I just say that I'm glad that we did?"

By the time Emma woke up again, hungry and in need of a diaper change, the bathroom boxes were unpacked, her bedroom was ready (with the sole exception of the wall decorations), the master bedroom was largely unpacked, and a good deal of progress had been made on the kitchen.

"I think I'm unpacked-out," Marinette admitted once she returned with Emma in her arms. "I never thought we had so much stuff."

"Well, we can come again next weekend and spend another day helping out," Sabine offered. "Or we can have an early dinner and see if we have enough energy to finish the kitchen, at least."

Adrien nodded in agreement. That sounded good. If they got the kitchen done, that only left the living room and Marinette's sewing room with serious unpacking left to do. Marinette would probably want to do her sewing room herself with Adrien acting as an extra pair of hands to move things around, and most of the stuff for the living room was just knickknacks, things that they didn't really _need_ but added some personality to the apartment. Those could wait for a little longer, maybe for an evening or two where they had some time on their hands.

They would have to find the cat toys, at least. Otherwise, Masha and Sasha would start getting into things that they shouldn't.

It didn't take long for them to put the pot that Tom and Sabine had brought over on the stove, and stick the bread that they had brought with it in the oven to warm. Adrien kept an eye on the food while Marinette and her parents played with Emma. When he came back out, Masha had made herself at home on Tom's shoulder while Emma sat in his lap, giggling as Sabine acted out a story with some of Emma's stuffed animals.

It was adorable, and Adrien was glad that Emma had one set of grandparents who loved kids so much. Whenever his father saw Emma, he simply acknowledged her with a short nod before addressing Adrien and Marinette.

There was a reason that Emma didn't like him very much. Whenever she saw Mr. Agreste she hid and fussed. Whenever her other grandparents entered a room, though, she lit up and babbled for them. It was an interesting difference, and Adrien wondered how much it would continue once Emma was older.

It wasn't long before Sabine was done with her story and dinner was ready, and Adrien scooped up Emma to put her in her high chair. She squealed happily as he spun her around on the way to the table. "Da!"

"I'll put the cats back in the bedroom," Marinette said, reaching up to scoop Sasha off of the cat tree. Masha _meowed_ and followed Marinette back to the bedroom, used to the routine by now. They couldn't keep the cats out during meals anymore, not with Emma in full Messy Eater mode. They would both get used to stealing table scraps, and that was _not_ something that Adrien and Marinette wanted to deal with.

"You know, a baby gate would be good for that," Sabine pointed out as Sasha tried to escape. "Then you could just dump Sasha over that and not have to wrestle with getting the door closed before she escapes."

"You assume that Sasha wouldn't just climb right over," Marinette called back. "Because she _would_. We're hoping that she mellows out with age."

Adrien tried not to laugh at that. It would probably be _years_ before that happened.

"Okay, but if you hung a piece of metal or something on it, would that keep her from climbing?" Tom asked. "If I gave you a couple industrial sheet trays, that would cover the holes on the baby gate. Unless Sasha is the world's best jumper, she's probably be stuck."

"It's worth a try," Adrien admitted. "It would be nice for mealtimes to not be such a ordeal."

"I'll bring the trays over during the week, then," Tom decided. "I have a few that probably should get retired, so you can have those."

"_Fantastic_."

Dinners took longer now that they had to account for Emma, though at least she wasn't a fussy eater. She was feeding herself now, too, and once she stopped eating it was a surefire sign that she was actually full. Adrien appreciated it, especially because Alya and Nino _hadn't_ gotten so lucky and it was a lot harder to feed Elodie. Still, even though she fed herself it didn't mean that she did it _quickly_. There was a lot of pauses as she babbled to her grandparents, something almost resembling an actual word occasionally slipping out as she pointed to her parents and grandparents and her food.

"She's a little chatterbox," Tom chuckled as Emma smashed a handful of food into her mouth. "She's going to start picking up words really soon now, I'll bet. And once she starts, she'll learn a lot."

Adrien grinned over at Marinette. "I get feeling that we're in for another Marinette story."

Sabine laughed. "You are! Marinette went to daycare most of the time when she was young, but there were a few days where I just brought her down into the bakery- mostly because there was a cold getting passed around the daycare or when Marinette got fussy and wanted mommy time. And once she started learning words, she picked up all of the names for the different pastries in the bakery and would name them as people put them down. Or she would tell people what colors their clothes were. Most people really thought it was cute-"

"As they should, because Baby Mari was adorable," Tom added in.

"But not everyone was great at watching their language around babies," Sabine continued, and Marinette buried her face in her hands with a groan. "These poor boys- they had popped in to get some rolls for their mom, I think, and they dropped their money after they had paid and one of the coins went under the counter. They swore just out of habit, and then Marinette repeated them. I don't think I had ever seen anyone look so mortified before."

"They hadn't realized that there was a toddler behind the counter, listening to everything that was going on," Tom told them. "And they apologized, of course, and then hightailed it out of there. Thankfully Marinette didn't make it a _permanent _addition to her vocabulary."

Adrien grinned at his blushing wife. "At least not at that stage. I know I've heard some _colorful_ vocabulary when she stabs herself with a needle."

"Oh, hush you."

"So, you said that your father helped pay for the move," Tom said, grinning at their exchange even as he changed the subject. "Have you been seeing more of him now?"

Adrien snorted. "Once every month or two. Thankfully he doesn't make it a long visit, since Emma gets fussy and he doesn't like hanging around then. She's our new get-out-of-jail-free card."

Sabine raised an eyebrow, clearly intrigued. "That sounds like you had an _old_ get-out-of-jail-free card."

"Father is allergic to cat hair," Adrien reminded her, gesturing towards the bedroom. "He used to cut dinners a bit short because his nose would start running. Then he started taking stuff for his allergies before we came over, so he could monologue at us for as long as he wanted."

"Or sit across from us in silent disapproval," Marinette added in. "Though he's mostly stopped that, at least. I think he's finally given up hope that Adrien will give up on Physics and come back to _Gabriel_ and that I'll quit _my_ job and work for him instead."

Sabine rolled her eyes. "It's obvious to anyone with eyes that you love your job where you are. So he's still working, then?"

Adrien nodded. "Yeah. Nathalie is doing her best to get him to take a step back, though. She thinks that he would be a lot less stressed if she was just designing and not doing absolutely everything involved in actually running the company."

"But he's not listening?"

"He's not listening," Adrien confirmed with a sigh. "Even though his doctor agrees. Being head of the company just keeps him stressed all the time." The stress was going to land his father in an early grave, Adrien was sure of it. At the rate Gabriel was going, Adrien was starting to worry that his father wouldn't still be around to tell when they got pregnant with their second child.

Even if his father had never been that engaged with him- and had been a distant, controlling parent ever since Adrien's mom vanished- Adrien still couldn't imagine _not_ having his father around. It was a foreign concept, and not exactly a welcome one.

"And he's older than us, too." Tom was frowning. "By nearly a decade, right? Even so, he _shouldn't_ be having that many health issues. My mother certainly isn't, and she's older than him."

"And he wouldn't, without all of the stress." Adrien wondered how much of a difference it would make if his mom were still around. She might have been able to get through to his father better than he or Nathalie could, and she and his father could have split the workload of running the company. But she was gone- none of the leads that they had had ever panned out- and what-ifs wouldn't help now. "_And_ if he weren't just ignoring everything, thinking that stuff will go away."

Tom and Sabine both winced at that.

"At this point, I think it's going to take a major health scare to get through to him," Adrien admitted. "Which certainly isn't ideal."

"Not at all," Sabine agreed. "And I'm happy to report that both Tom and I go in for check-ups and screenings every year and we haven't had any problems. And if we _did_, we would certainly take the doctor's advice about how to fix it."

"And thank goodness for that."

* * *

Tom and Sabine insisted on doing the washing-up, and then they helped finish unpacking and setting up the kitchen under Adrien's supervision while Marinette decorated Emma's room. By the time they left, everyone was yawning and Emma was nodding off in Tom's arms.

"Off to bed for us, I think," Tom said cheerfully as he and Sabine gathered up their things, handing Emma back to Adrien. "Let us know if we can be any help this week. We have enough staff now that we don't have to work such long hours and can easily spend the evenings over here. Or if you ever need someone to take care of Emma for a couple of hours..."

"We know, you tell us every week," Marinette said with a laugh. "We'll keep it in mind, just like always. And I'll send you a video if Emma starts walking on her own. She's getting so close."

"They grow up so _fast_," Sabine bemoaned briefly, but she was smiling. "Good-night, you three. Stop by any time."

"Good night!"

The door closed, and both Adrien and Marinette almost immediately made a beeline for the couch, flopping down on it and letting out identical long breaths.

"So, we've moved," Adrien told the ceiling. "I don't think I can handle another move for at _least_ a couple more years."

Marinette nodded fervently. "Yeah. Not until we're ready for Kid Three and _need_ the extra space." She sighed, then glanced around. "I think we'll be happy here, though, once we settle in. There's plenty of space for Emma, and for us, and for expanding our family again once we're ready for that."

"Two adults, two kwamis, two cats, one toddler..." Adrien laughed. "We're a bit of an odd bunch here, really."

"Well, it might be a little weird, but it's _our_ weird," Marinette said fondly, leaning over to kiss Adrien. He returned it happily, smiling into the kiss. "And I wouldn't change it for the world."

_Fin._

* * *

_A/N: __Yes, before anyone asks- the decision to not specify exactly how old Emma is is entirely because I have zero reference points for what one-year olds are like and Google only gets me so far so Imma be vague instead and avoid the problem._

__This is the end of HTAAP and the end of HTFAM-verse (for real this time)! I hope you enjoyed this little extra story with the hopeless dorks :D In case anyone hasn't already noticed, I have 100+ other MLB stories for people to explore and more coming all the time (and another long-ish story coming soon that I'm really excited about!).  
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__And as always- reviews make my day! :)__


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